3c7 



General Butler in New Orleans. 



HISTORY 



OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE 



DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF 

IN THE YEAR 1862: 

MAY 1 11883 

WITH 

AN ACCOUNT OF THE CAPTURE OF NEW ORLEANS, AND A 
SKETCH OF THE PREVIOUS CAREER OF THE 
GENERAL, CIVIL AND, MILITARY. 



BY 

JAMES PARTON, 

AUTHOR OF "LIFE AND TIMES OF AARON BURR," " LIFE OF 
ANDREW JACKSON," ETC., ETC. 

SEVENTEENTH EDITION. 



BOSTON : 

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY. • 
1882. 



■ 



Kntered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, 

By MASON BEOTHEES, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for tne 
Southern District of Xew York. 

By tora&gier 

5 h\m 



"Whatever they call him, what oare I! — 
Aristocrat, Democrat, Autocrat, — one 
Who oan rule and dare not lie." — Maua. 



/ 



PREFACE. 



It can not be necessary to apologize for an attempt to relate 
the history of the most remarkable episode of the war, respecting 
which opinions so violently contradictory are expressed, both at 
home and abroad. The vindication of the country itself seems to 
require that a policy should, at least, be understood, which the 
country has accepted as just, wise, and humane, and which the 
enemies of the country, foreign and domestic, denounce as arbi- 
trary, savage, and brutal. 

It is, however, of the first necessity to state how this book came 
to be written, and from what sources its contents have been de- 
rived. 

In common with the other devotees of the Union and the Flag, 
I had watched the proceedings of General Butler in Louisiana 
with interest and approval ; and shared also the indignation with 
which they regarded the perverse misinterpretation put upon his 
measures by the faction which has involved the Southern States in 
ruin, and by their " neutral" allies abroad. 

Upon the return of General Butler to the North, I wrote to him, 
saying that I should like to write an account of his administration 
of the Department of the Gulf, as well as a slighter sketch of the 
previous military career of a man who, wherever he had been em- 
ployed, has shown an ability equal to the occasion ; but that this 
could not be done, and ought not to be attempted, without his 
consent and co-operation. 

To this, the general thus replied : 

" I am too much flattered by your request, and will endeavor to 
give you every assistance in the direction you mention. My letter 



8 



PEEFACE. 



and order books shall be at your disposal, as well as the official and 
unofficial correspondence directed to me. If I can, by personal con- 
versation, elucidate many matters wherein otherwise history might, 
be a perversion of the truth, I will be at your service. 

" One thing I beg shall be understood between us, however (as 
I have no doubt it would have been without this paragraph), that 
while I will furnish you with every possible facility to learn every- 
thing done by me in New Orleans and elsewhere, it will be upon 
the express condition that you shall report it in precisely the man- 
ner you may choose, without the slightest sense of obligation 
'aught to extenuate' because of the source from which you derive 
the material of your work ; and farther, that no sense of delicacy 
of position, in relation to myself, shall interfere with the closest 
investigation of every act alleged to have been done or permitted 
by me. I will only ask that upon all matters I may have the privi- 
lege of presenting to your mind the documentary and other evi- 
dences of the fact." 

I had not the pleasure of General Butler's personal acquaintance, 
/but our correspondence ended with my going to Lowell, where I 
lived for a considerable time in the general's own house, and re- 
ceived from him, from his staff, and from Mrs. Butler, every kind 
V^of aid they could render for the work proposed. We talked ten 
hours a day, and lived immersed in the multitudinous papers and 
letters relating to the events which have excited so much contro- 
versy. The general placed at my disposal the whole of those papers 
and letters, besides giving the most valuable verbal elucidations, 
and relating many anecdotes previously unrecorded. 

Respecting the manner in which the material should be used, he 
did not then, and has not since, made a single suggestion of any 
kind. He left me perfectly free in every respect. Nor has he seen 
a line of the manuscript, nor asked a question about it. 

Therefore, while the whole value and the greater part of the 
interest of this volume are due to the aid afforded by General 
Butler, he is not to be held responsible for anything in it except 
his own writings. If I have misunderstood or misinterpreted an\ 



PREFACE. 



event or person, or used the papers injudiciously, at my door let 
all the blame be laid, for it is wholly my fault. 

And farther : I must explicitly declare, that if I have been led 
to form an unfavorable opinion of the conduct of any person men- 
tioned in these pages, I did not derive that ill opinion from any 
thing said by him. So far as his own conduct is concerned, Gen- 
eral Butler is one of the most candid of men ; and he is particularly 
so with regard to any of his acts which have brought obloquy upon 
him, or which he may himself regret. It is foreign to his nature 
to conceal of qualify or justify his own conduct. But with regard 
to the conduct of others, and especially of his superiors in the gov- 
ernment, he is reticent and charitable. To be plain : I have never 
heard him say a word respecting the persons who are supposed to 
have thwarted him, or to have been instrumental in his recall, 
which might not be repeated in their hearing without giving them 
offense. 

I have been solicitous to preserve as much as possible of the 
remarkable writings of General Butler. He was always at bay in 
Louisiana. Assailed by consuls, " neutrals," and traitors, whose 
misrepresentations found their way to Washington, he was contin- 
ually obliged to defend himself by relating the truth. "With what 
point, humor, and cogency he would do this, the public do not 
need to be told. Of the three great writers of the war — General 
Butler, President Lincoln, and Mr. Wilkes, of the Spirit of the 
Times — he had the advantage of a position entirely unique in the 
history of warfare, and his writings are instinct both with his own 
originality and the originality of his position. As Mr. Richard 
Grant White has observed : " General Butler's orders and official 
correspondence at New Orleans, for hitting the nail square upon 
the head, and clinching it with a twist of humor, have not been 
surpassed by any writings of their kind. By reading them, the 
man weary of the grand style, or fretted with the flippancy of the 
familiar, may obtain real mental refreshment." These writings, 
too, contain the heart of the matter. If the United States is right 
iix this great contest, the argument of those compositions is sound, 



10 



PREFACE. 



and the measures which they explain were just. If the United 
States is in the wrong, those writings are fallacious, and those 
measures were unjustifiable. In word and deed General Butler is, 
at least, logical. 

I have related, at some length, the civil and military career of 
General Butler previous to the capture of New Orleans. This was 
chiefly done, that the reader might judge whether such a man as 
General Butler was before he went to New Orleans was likely to 
do such things there as the enemies of his country say he did. 

It is of the most momentous importance to the future of the 
United States, that whatever is written respecting this war should 
be written truly. Upon the class of writers it chiefly devolves to 
garner up, for our future warning, solace, and instruction, the expe- 
rience gained by such an appalling expenditure of life and of the 
means of living. Let us leave all lying, all delusion, all boasting, 
all unworthy suppressions, to the malignants who know no better. 
For us, the tkuth, though it blast us. We owe it to the heroic 
dead, who died that we might more worthily live. We owe it to 
the living, who are so anxious and so perplexed, through the in- 
completeness of their knowledge. We owe it to the inconceivable 
multitude of our brethren and fellow-citizens unborn. 

For myself, I can say that every page of this volume has been 
prepared with the single object of conveying to the reader's mind 
a correct impression of the facts related. 

My grateful acknowledgments are due to Mr. Samuel F. Glenn, 
advocate, of New Orleans, who relinquished, in my favor, a project 
he had formed of writing a volume on the same subject. He had 
made, indeed, some progress in the work, sufficient to render its 
relinquishment an act of great generosity. I told him that the 
record of an eye-witness would have a value of its own, not to be 
affected by publications of another nature ; but he kindly preferred 
to retire from the field, and resume his professional labors in New 
Orleans. 

New York, October 20, 1863. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER L rxax 
General Butler before the war 18 

CHAPTER II. 

In the Charleston Convention , 45 

CHAPTER III. 

Massachusetts ready 59 

CHAPTER IV. 

Annapolis 75 

CHAPTER V. 

Baltimore 100 

CHAPTER VI. 

Fortress Monroe 120 

CHAPTER VII. 

Great Bethel 139 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Consequences of Great Bethel 148 

CHAPTER IX. 

Recall from Virginia ; 163 

CHAPTER X. 

Hatteras 176 

CHAPTER XI. 

Recruiting for special service 179 

CHAPTER XII. 

Ship Island 195 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Reduction of the forts 21 

CHAPTER XIV. 

The Panic in New Orleans 2t 

CHAPTER XV. 

New Orleans will not surrender 26* 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Landing in New Orleans , 279 



12 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XVIL page 
Feeding and employing the poor .\ 300 

CHAPTER XVIIL 

The woman order 322 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Execution of Mnmford 846 

CHAPTER XX. 

General Butler and the foreign consuls 354 

CHAPTER XXL 

Efforts toward restoration 407 

CHAPTER XXII. 

The effect in New Orleans of our losses in Virginia 486 

CHAPTER XXIIL 

The sheep and the goats 449 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

The confiscation act 467 

CHAPTER XXV. 

More of the iron hand 475 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

The negro question— first difficulties 4S9 

CHAPTER XXVIL 

General Butler and General Phelps 495 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

General Butler arms the free colored men, and finds work for the fugitive slaves §16 

GHAPTER XXIX. 

Representative negro anecdotes 532 

CHAPTER XXX. 

Military operations \ 551 

CHAPTER XXXL 

Routine of a day in New Orleans 586 

CHAPTER XXXIL 

Recall ,598 

CHAPTER XXXIIL 

At home 613 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

Summary 625 

Appendix 631 

Index . 635 



GENERAL BUTLER IN NEW ORLEANS. 



CHAPTER I. 

GENERAL BUTLER BEFORE THE WAR. 

He came of fighting stock. His father's father, Captain Zeph. 
aniah Butler, oi Woodbury, Connecticut, fought under General 
Wolfe at Quebec, and served in the continental army in the war 
of the revolution. A large, old-fashioned powder-horn, covered 
with quaint carving, done by this old soldier's own hand and jack- 
knife, which was slung at his side when he climbed the hights of 
Quebec, and the sword w T hich he wore during the war for indepen- 
dence, now hang in the library of General Butler at Lowell, the 
relics of an honorable career. The mother of General Butler de- 
scends from the Cilleys of New Hampshire, a doughty race of Scotch- 
Irish origin ; one of whom fought at the battle of the Boyne on the 
wrong side. That valiant Colonel Cilley, who at the battle of 
Bennington commanded a company that had never seen a cannon, 
and who, to quiet their apprehensions, sat astride of one while 
it was discharged, was an ancestor of our general. Mr. Cilley, 
member of congress from Maine, who was shot in a memorable 
duel, twenty-five years ago, was the general's cousin. Thus the 
tide that courses the veins of Benjamin Franklin Butler is com- 
posed, in about equal parts, of that blood which we call Anglo- 
Saxon, and of that strenuous fluid which gives such tenacity ana 
audacity to the Scotch-Irish. Such a mixture affords promise of a 
mitigated Andrew Jackson or of a combative Benjamin Franklin. 

The father of General Butler was John Butler, of Deerfield, New 
Hampshire; captain of dragoons during the war of 1812; a faith- 
ful soldier who served for a while under General Jackson at New 



.4 



GENERAL BUTLER EEFORE THE WAR. 



Orleans, and there conceived such love for that tough old hero, as 
to name his first boy Andrew Jackson. After the war, he engaged 
in the West India trade, sailing sometimes as supercargo, some- 
times as merchant, sometimes as captain of the schooner, enjoying 
for several years a moderate sufficient prosperity. In politics, a 
democrat, of the pure Jeffersonian school ; and this at a time when 
in New Hampshire to be a democrat was to live under a social ban. 
He was one of the few who gave gallant support to young Isaac 
Hill, of the New Hampshire Patriot, the paper which at length 
brought the state into democratic line. He was a friend, personal 
as well as political, of Isaac Hill, and shared with him the odium 
and the fierce joy of those early contests with powerful and arro- 
gant federalism. A 4 hearted' democrat was Captain Butler ; one 
whose democracy was part of his religion. In Deerfield, where 
he lived, there were but eight democratic voters, who formed a little 
brotherhood, apart from their fellow townsmen, shunned by the fed- 
eralists as men who would have been dangerous from their princi- 
ples if they had not been despicable from their fewness. His boys, 
therefore, were born into the ranks of an abhorred but positive and 
pugnacious minority — a little spartan band, always battling, never 
subdued, never victorious. 

In March, 1819, Captain Butler, while lying at one of the West 
India Islands with his vessel, died of yellow fever, leaving to the 
care of their mother his two boys, Benjamin being then an in- 
fant five months old. A large part of his property he had with 
him at the time of his death, and little of it ever found its way to 
his widow. She was left to rear her boys as best she could, with 
slender means of support. But it is in such circumstances that a 
New England mother shows the stuff she is made of. Capable, 
thrifty, diligent, devoted, Mrs. Butler made the most of her means 
and opportunities, and succeeded in giving to one of her boys a 
good country education, and helped the other on his way to college, 
and to a liberal profession. She lives still, to enjoy in the success 
of both of them, the fruit of her self-denying labors and wise 
management ; they proud to own that to her they owe whatever 
renders them worthy of it, and thanking God that she is near them 
to dignify and share their honors and their fortune. 

Of late, the world has heard a good deal of that variety of the 
human being called the Yaxkee. Our Southern ex-brethren have 



GENERAL BUTLER BEFORE THE WAR. lb 

bestowed much strong language upon him. Mr. Russell, of the 
London Times, has given him passing notice. Some orations 
have been pronounced upon him, and numberless anecdotes told of 
him. He has, also, as usual, had something to say upon the sub- 
ject himself ; for the Yankee, I regret to say, is somewhat given to 
boasting of the qualities and exploits of his race. The various ac- 
counts do not harmonize. If Dr. Bellows regards the Yankee as 
the consummate man, Jefferson Davis considers him a companion 
less desirable than the hyena. It is with the Yankee as with other 
noted personages, the more that is printed about them, the more 
difficult it becomes to get any knowledge of them. In these cir- 
cumstances, it may be edifying to some readers to have a recent 
specimen of this curious and renowned people caught and ex- 
amined ; his growth and formation briefly narrated ; his peculi- 
arities and capabilities noted. General Butler is a Yankee. He 
has traits which are peculiar to himself and to his family ; but in 
the great outlines, both of his career and of his character, he shows 
himself a Yankee of that type, of which his namesake, Benjamin' 
Franklin, is the perfect and immortal example. Behold, then, in 
the paragraphs following, the process by which a Yankee becomes 
the creature we find him in these very days now passing over us. 

General Butler was born at Deerfield, an agricultural town of 
NewHampshire, on Guy Faux day, the fifth of November, 1818. 

The fatherless boy was small, sickly, tractable, averse to quar- 
rels, and happy in having a stout elder brother to take his part! 
Reading and writing seem to come by nature in New England, for 
few of that country can recollect a time when they had not those 
accomplishments. The district school helped him to spelling, 
figures, a little geography, and the rudiments of grammar. He 
soon caught that passion for reading which seizes some New Eng- 
land boys, and sends them roaming and ravaging in their neighbor- 
hood for printed paper. His experience was like that of his father's 
friend, Isaac Hill, who limped the country round for books, reading 
almanacs, newspapers, tracts, "Law's Serious Call," the Bible, 
fragments of histories, and all printed things that fell in his way. 
The boy hunted for books as some boys hunt for birds'-nests and 
early apples ; and, in the great scarcity of the article, read the few 
he had so often as to learn large portions of them by heart ; de- 
vouring with special eagerness the story of the revolution, and all 



le 



GENERAL BUTLER BEFORE THE WAR. 



tales of battle and adventure. The Bible was bis mother's sufficient 
library, and the boy pleased her by committing to memory long 
passages ; once, the whole book of Matthew. His memory then, 
as always, was something wonderful. He can, at this hour, repeat 
more poetry, perhaps, than any other person in the country who 
has not made the repeating of poetry a profession. His mother, 
observing this gift, and considering the apparent weakness of his 
constitution, early conceived the desire of giving him a liberal edu- 
cation, cherishing also the fond hope, as New England mothers 
would in those days, that her boy would be drawn to enter the 
ministry. 

One chilly morning in November, 1821, when he was hi his 
fourth year, half a dozen sharp-eyed Boston gentlemen, Nathan 
Appleton being one of them, might have been seen (but were not) 
tramping about in the snow near the Falls of the Merrimac. There 
was a hamlet near by of five or six houses, and a store, but these 
gentlemen wandered along the banks of the river among the rocks 
and trees, unobserved, conversing with animation. The result of 
that morning's walk and talk was the city of Lowell, now a place 
of forty thousand inhabitants, with thirteen millions invested in 
cotton and woolen mills, and two hundred thousand dollars a 
month paid in wages to operatives. In 1828, when our^young 
friend was ten years old, and Lowell was a thriving town of two 
thousand inhabitants, his mother removed thither with her boys. 

It was a, fortunate move for them all. The good mother was 
enabled to increase her income by taking a few boarders, and her 
book-loving son had better schools to attend, and abundant books 
at command. He improved these opportunities, graduating from a 
common school to the high school, and, at a later day, preparing for 
college at the academy of Exeter in his native state. 

As the time approached for his entering college, the question was 
anxiously discussed in the family, What college? Probably one 
half the boys in the United States, even in those piping times of 
peace, had a lurking desire to enter the military academy at West 
Point. At present, every boy has such a desire, except those who 
prefer the naval school at Newport. Perhaps the boys are right. 
In those institutions the fundamental conditions of manly education 
are complied with in a respectable degree. There is physical train- 
ing ; there is science ; there modern languages have their prop^ 



GENERAL BTTTLER BEFORE THE WAE. l7 

place ; there drawing and dancing, riding and fencing are taught ; 
there is due suppression of those rooted obstacles to all useful ac- 
quisition, Latin and Greek ; there is that sweet and noble thing, so 
dear to ingenuous youth, discipline ; there, if anywhere, a rude 
cub of a boy can be transformed into that beautiful creature, the 
true fighting animal, but the man nowhere out of place — a Gentle- 
man ! In them, too, the education that fits a man for life proceeds 
simultaneously with that which prepares him for his profession — 
schooling and apprenticeship going hand in hand — which. is the 
only system by which any considerable proportion of the youth of 
a country can ever be liberally educated. Would that venerable 
Harvard, venerable Yale, Amherst, Williams, Columbia, and the 
rest, would heed the lessons the times are teaching us, and place 
themselves, by a sweeping revolution, upon a footing worthy of the 
age, and prepare to give the education which the youth of the 
country are so eager to receive. If existing institutions refuse it, a 
hundred West Points will spring into being, and the glory of the 
good old colleges will depart for ever. 

The boy was decided in favor of West Point. Nor was a cadet- 
ship unattainable, in the days of Jackson and Isaac Hill, to the son 
of Captain John Butler. But the cautious mother hesitated. She 
feared he would forget his religion, and disappoint her dream of 
seeing him in the pulpit of a Baptist church. She consulted her 
minister upon the subject. He agreed with her, and recommended 
Waterville college, in Maine, recently founded by the Baptists, 
with a special view to the education of young men for the ministry. 
It promised, also, the advantage of a manual labor department, in 
which the youth, by working three hours a day, could earn part of 
his expenses. At Waterville, moreover, there could be no danger 
of the student's neglecting religion, since the great object of the 
college was the inculcation of religion, and all the influences of the 
place were religious. The president himself was a clergyman, 
several of the professors were clergymen. Attendance at church 
on Sundays was compulsory, and there was even a fine of ten 
cents for every unexcused absence from prayers. With such safe- 
guards 1 , what danger could there be to the religious principles in- 
stilled into the mind of the young man from his earliest childhood? 
Thus argued the minister. The mother gave heed to his opinions, 
and the youth was consigned to Waterville. 



18 



GENERAL BTTTLER BEFORE THE WAR. 



He was a slender lad of sixteen, small of stature, health infirm, 
of fair complexion, and hair of reddish brown ; his character con- 
spicuously shown in the remarkable form of his head. Over his 
eyes an immense development of the perceptive powers, and the 
upper forehead retreating almost like that of a flat-head Indian. A 
youth of keen vision, fiery, inquisitive, fearless ; nothing yet de- 
veloped in him but ardent curiosity to know, and perfect memory 
to retain- Phrenologists would find proof of their theory in com- 
paring the portrait of the youth with the well-rounded head of the 
man mature, his organs developed by a quarter of a century of in- 
tense and constant use of them. His purse wasf most slenderly 
furnished. His mother could afford him little help. A good New 
Hampshire uncle gave him some assistance now and then, and he 
worked his three hours a day in the manual labor department at 
chair-making, earning wages ridiculously small. He was compelled 
to remain in debt for a considerable part of his college expenses. 

Mr. Carlyle observes that the natural history of a hawk written 
oy a sparrow could not be flattering to the hawk. Nor could it be 
just. Sedate and orthodox professors are the natural prey of a 
lad like this, born into a minority, trained to the audacious advo- 
cacy of unpopular opinions, and accustomed to regard the powers 
that be in the light of objects of attack. I fear, therefore, that the 
college career of this student, if it should be related by his instruc- 
tors, would not present him to us in a favorable light. Perhaps, 
there is something in the clerical character and training which, in 
some degree, disqualify a man for gaining an ascendency over the 
minds of youth. The example of Arnold may be cited against 
mch an opinion, but Arnold was an exceptional man, in an excep- 
ional sphere. 

The professors attached to New England colleges present certain 
arieties of character and position : — The president, a grave and 
awful Doctor of Divinity, highest in place, sometimes lowest in 
accomplishment, owing his appointment to his ecclesiastical impor- 
tance rather than to his learning ; sometimes the butt of the college, 
often deeply loved and venerated. There is the professor renowned 
beyond the college walls, its advertisement and boast, not always 
highly valued in the class-room. There is the absorbed professor, 
book-worm and devotee of his subject, who knows not the name of 
the president of the United States, and never heard of Dickens and 



GEXEKAL BUTLEE BEFOEE THE WAR. 



19 



Thackeray. There is the unpopular professor, a prying, meddling 
gentleman, keen in the scent of a furtive cigar, prompt to appear 
at the moment he is least expected and desired. There is the be- 
loved professor, the students' gentle friend and father, whom to 
insult or annoy rouses the retributive wrath of the whole class. 
There is the professor of doubtful scholarship, often wrong in his 
dicta, the tortured victim of the knowing ones, who have explored 
the shallows of his mind, and know what questions he cannot 
answer. There is the dandy professor, deliverer of flowery ora- 
tions, or of sermons trivial and showy. There is the professor who 
is writing a book, and gets students of the softer sort to copy for 
him. There is the professor who once wrote an article for the 
" Xorth American Review," and gives the number containing it to 
his favorites. There is the foreign-born professor of immense learn- 
ing, not too fond of attending morning prayers, totally unable to 
keep order in his class. And there is the lynx-eyed professor, whom 
no one attempts to cheat ; and the absent-minded professor, who 
sits cogitating his next sermon, regardless of the written transla- 
tion, or the forbidden " key." 

TVaterville was a young college, but it could boast most of these 
varieties ; and to as many as there were, our young Mend was oc- 
casionally an affliction. Most of them were clergymen and theolo- 
gians more than they were instructors of youth ; their object being 
to make good Baptists as well as good scholars. 

But the college was of vast benefit to our young friend, as any 
college must have been, conducted in the interests of virtue, and 
attended by a hundred and seventy-five young men from the simple 
and industrious homes of New England ; most of them eager to 
improve, and perfectly aware that upon themselves alone depended 
the success of their future career. If he was prone to undervalue 
some parts of the college course, he made most liberal use of the 
college library. He was an omnivorous reader. All the natural 
sciences were interesting to him, particularly chemistry; and his 
fondness for such studies inclined him long to choose the medical 
profession. ISo student went better prepared to the class-room of 
the professor of natural philosophy. 

Seduced by his example, there arose a party in the college op- 
posed to the regular course of studies, advocates of an unregulated 
browse among the books of the library, each student to read only 



20 



GENERAL BUTLER BEFORE THE "WAR. 



such subjects as interested him. There was a split in the Literary 
Society. Of the retiring body, after immense electioneering, young 
Butler was elected president, and the question was theu debated 
with extreme earnestness for several weeks, whether the mind 
would fare better by confining itself to the college routine, or by 
reading whatever it had appetite for. I know not which party car- 
ried the day ; but our friend was foremost in maintaining both by 
speech and example, that knowledge was knowledge, however ob- 
tained, and that the mind could get most advantage by partaking 
of the kind of nutriment it craved. He laid a wager with a noted 
plodder of the college, that he would continue for a given term his 
desultory reading, and yet beat him in the regular lessons of the 
class. The wager was won by an artifice. He did continue his 
desultory reading, as well as his desultory wanderings about the 
country, but late at night, when all the college slept, he spent some 
hours in vigorous cram, for the next day's lesson. His memory 
was such, that he found it easier to commit to memory such lessons 
as "Wayland'-s Moral Philosophy," than to prepare them in the 
usual way. He astonished his plodding friend one day, by repeat- 
ing thirteen pages of Wayland, without once hesitating. 

He came into collision with his reverend instructors on a point 
of college discipline. The fine of ten cents imposed for absence 
from prayers, was a serious matter to a young gentleman natu- 
rally averse to getting up before daylight, and who earned not 
more than two or three ten cent pieces daily in the chair shop. 
But it was not of the fine that he complained. It was a rule of the 
college, that the fine should carry with it a loss of standing in class. 
This our student esteemed unjust, and he thought he had good rea- 
son to complain since, though, upon the whole, a good scholar, he 
was always on the point of expulsion from the loss of marks for his 
morning delinquency. He took an opportunity, at length, to protest 
against this apparent injustice in a highly audacious and character- 
istic manner. One of the professors, a distinguished theologian, 
preached in the college church, a sermon of the severest Calvinistic 
type, in the course of which he maintained propositions like these : 
1. The Elect, and the Elect alone, will be saved. 2. Of the people 
commonly called Christians, probably not more than one in a hun- 
dred will be saved. 3. The heathen have a better chance of salva- 
tion than the inhabitants of Christian countries who neglect theii 



GENERAL BUTLER, BEFORE THE WAR. 



21 



opportunities. Upon these hints, the young gentleman spake. He 
drew up a petition to the faculty, couched in the language of pro- 
found respect, asking to be excused from further attendance at 
prayers and sermons, on the grounds so ably sustained in the dis- 
course of the preceding Sunday. If, he said, the doctrine of that 
sermon was sound, of which he would not presume to entertain a 
doubt, he was only preparing for himself a future of more exquisite 
anguish by attending religious services. He begged to be allowed 
to remind the faculty, that the church in which the sermon was 
preached, had usually a congregation of six hundred persons, nine 
of whom were his revered professors and tutors ; and as only one 
in a hundred of ordinary Christians could be saved, three even of 
the faculty, good men as all of them were, were inevitably damned. 
Could he, a mere student, and not one of the most exemplary, ex- 
pect to be saved before his superiors ? Far be from him a thought so 
presumptuous. Shakspeare himself had intimated that the lieutenant 
cannot expect salvation before his military superior. Nothing re- 
mained, therefore, for him but perdition. In this melancholy pos- 
ture of affairs, it became him to beware of hightening his future 
torment by listening to the moving eloquence of the pulpit, or 
availing himself of any of the privileges of religion. But here he 
was met by the college laws, which compelled attendance at chapel 
and church; which imposed a pecuniary fine for non-attendance, 
and entailed a loss of the honors due to his scholarship. Threatened 
thus with damnation in the next world, bankruptcy and disgrace in 
this, he implored the merciful consideration of the faculty, and 
asked to be excused from all further attendance at prayers and at 
church. 

This unique petition was drawn with the utmost care, and the 
reasoning fully elaborated. Handsomely copied, and folded into 
the usual form of important public documents, it was sent to the 
president. The faculty did not take the joke. Before the whole 
college in chapel assembled, the culprit standing, he was repri- 
manded for irreverence. It was rumored at the time, that he nar- 
rowly escaped expulsion. He had a friend or two in the faculty 
who, perhaps, could forgive the audacity of the petition, for the sake 
of its humor. 

It must be owned, that the Calvinistic theology in vogue at 
Waterville, did not commend itself to the mind of this young man. 



GEXEJRAL BUTLER BEFORE THE WAK, 



He was formed by nature to be an antagonist ; and youth is an 
antagonist regardless of remote consequences. At West Point he 
would have battled for his hereditary tenets against all who had 
questioned them. At Waterville, nothing pleased him better than 
to measure logic with the staunchest doctor of them all. It 
chanced toward the close of his college course, that the worthy ' 
president of the institution delivered a course of lectures upon 
miracles, maintaining these two propositions : 1. If the miracles 
are true, the gospel is of Divine origin and authority. 2. The 
miracles are true, because the apostles, who must ha\e known 
whether they were true or false, proved their belief in their truth 
by their martyrdom. At the close of each discourse, the lecturer 
invited the class to offer objections. Young Butler seized the op- 
portunity with alacrity, and plied the doctor hard with the- usual 
arguments employed by the heterodox. He did not fail to furnish 
himself with a catalogue of martyrs who had died in the defense, 
and for the sole sake of dogmas now universally conceded to be 
erroneous. All religions, he said, boasted their army of martyrs ; 
and martyrdom proved nothing — not even the absolute sincerity of 
the martyr. And as to the apostles, Peter notoriously denied his 
Lord, Thomas was an avowed skeptic, James and John were slain 
to please the Jews, and the last we heard of Paul was, that he was 
living in his own hired house, commending the government of Nero. 
The debate continued day after day, our youth cramming diligently 
for each encounter, always eager for the fray. He chanced to find 
in the village a copy of that armory of unbelief, " Taylor's Die- 
gesis of the New Testament ;" and from this, he and his comrades 
secretly drew missives to let fly at the president after lecture. The 
doctor maintained his ground ably and manfully, little thinking that 
he was contending, not with a few saucy students, but with the ac- 
cumulated skeptical ingenuity of centuries. 

All this, I need scarcely say, was mere intellectual exercise and 
sport. The youth came out of college as good a Christian as he 
went in. Christianity, hardened down into a system of opinions, 
has long been an object of criticism ; every young and fearless in- 
tellect, during the last century and a half, has tried itself upon it. 
Christianity, as a controller of action, as organized Virtue, as the 
benign inspirer of motives, as the tamer of the human savage, as the 
weekly monitor and rest, rescuer of a whole day in seven from the 



GENERAL BUTLEE BEFORE THE WAR. 



23 



routine of toil, ten years of possible millennium in every unabbre- 
viated life; — who has ever quarreled with that? I suppose our 
student would have heartily subscribed the remark of John Adams, 
in one of those delightful letters of his old age to Mr. Jefferson, 
japou the materialistic controversy. " You and I," said the old man, 
" have as much authority to settle these disputes as Swift, Priestley, 
wuis, or the Pope ; and if you will agree with me, we will issue 
our bull,' and enjoin it upon all these gentlemen to be silent, until 
the) can tell us what matter is, and what spirit is, and, in the mean- 
time, to observe the commandments and the Sermon on the 
Mount." 

His college course was done. He would have graduated with 
honor, if his standing as a scholar had not been lost through his 
delinquencies as a rebel. As it was, it was touch-and-go, whether 
he could be permitted to graduate at all. He was, however, as- 
signed a low place in the graduating class, and bore off as good a 
piece of parchment as the best of them. He had outlived his early 
preference for the medical profession. In one of his last years at 
college, he had witnessed in court a well-contested trial, and as he 
marked with admiration the skillful management of the opposing 
counsel, and shared the keen excitement of the strife, he said to 
himself : " This is the work for me." He left college in debt, and 
with health impaired. He weighed but ninety-seven pounds. In 
all the world, there was no one to whom he could look for help, 
save himself alone. 

Yet, in the nick of time, he found a friend who gave him just the 
aid he needed most. It was an uncle, captain of a fishing schooner, 
one of those kind and brave old sailors of Yankee land, who, for 
two hundred years, have roamed the northern seas in quest of some- 
thing to keep the pot boiling on the rock-bound shores of Home. 
The good-hearted captain observed the pale visage and attenuated 
form of his nephew. " Come with me, lad, to the coast of Labra- 
dor, and heave a line this summer. I'll give you a bunk in the 
cabin, but you must do your duty before the mast, watch and watch, 
like a man. I'll warrant you'll come back sound enough in the fall." 
Thus, the ancient mariner. The young man went to the coast of 
Labrador ; hove a line ; ate the flesh and drank the oil of cod ; came 
back, after a four months' cruise, in perfect health, and had not 
another sick day in twenty years. His constitution developed into 



24 



GENERAL BUTLER BEFORE THE WAR. 



the toughest, the most indefatigable compound of brain, nerve and 
muscle lately seen in New England. A gift of twenty thousand 
dollars had been a paltry boon in comparison with that bestowed 
upon him by this worthy uncle. • ' 

He returned to Lowell in his twentieth year, and took hold of 
life with a vigorous grasp. The law office which he entered as a 
student was that of a gentleman who spent most of his time in 
Boston, and from whom he received not one word of guidance or 
instruction; nor felt the need of one. He read law with all his 
might, and began almost immediately to practice a little in the police 
courts of Lowell, conducting suits brought by the factory girls 
against the mill corporations, and defending petty criminal cases ; 
glad enough to earn an occasional two dollar fee. The presiding 
justice chanced to be a really learned lawyer and able man, and 
thus this small practice was a valuable aid to the student. Small 
indeed were his gains, and sore his need. One six months of his 
two years' probation, he taught a public school in Lowell, in order 
to procure decent clothing ; and he taught it well, say his old pupils. 
"What with his school, his law studies, and his occasional practice, 
he worked eighteen hours in the twenty-four. 

At this time he joined the City Guard, a company of that Sixth 
regiment of Massachusetts militia, so famous in these years for 
its bloody march through Baltimore. Always fond of military 
pursuits and exercises, he has served in every grade — private, cor- 
poral, sergeant, third lieutenant, second lieutenant, first lieutenant, 
captain, major, lieutenant-colonel, colonel, and brigadier-general; 
making it a point to hold every one of these positions in due suc- 
cession. For many years, the drills, parades and annual encampings 
of his regiment were the only recreation for which he would find 
leisure — much to the wonder of his professional friends, who were 
wont, in the old, peaceful times, to banter him severely upon what 
seemed to them a rather ridiculous foible. "What a fool you are," 
they would say, "to spend so much time in marching around town 
in soldier-clothes!" This young gentleman, however, was one of 
those who take hold of life as they find it ; not disdaining the duties 
of a citizen of a free country, but rejoicing in them, and making 
them serve his purposes, as they should. There is a 4 set ' in Mas- 
sachusetts who hold aloof from the homely, vigorous life around 
them, contemplating the world from library windows, and reserving 



GENERAL BUTLER BEFORE THE WAR. 



25 



all their sympathies for other and distant civilizations — to their own 
infinite and irreparable damage. Our young student-at-law was not, 
and could not be one of these. He took much of his knowledge, 
not diluted and corrupted by literary decoction, but at the original 
sources — in the street, the police court, the school-room, the political 
meeting, the parade ground, and grew, at least, robust upon that 
fresh, substantial fare. 

A trifling incident of these early years marks at once the Yankee 
and the man. That every-day wonder of the modern world, a loco- 
motive, was then first seen at Lowell. Many of us remember see- 
ing our first locomotive, and how we comported ourselves on the 
interesting occasion. Our young lawyer behaved thus: In com- 
pany with his friend, the engineer, he visited the wondrous engine 
at its own house, and spent five hours in studying it, questioning 
both it and its master until he understood the why and the where- 
fore of every part, and felt competent to navigate the machine to 
Boston. This small anecdote contains the essence of old New 
England ; which is expressed, also, in one of the country exclama- 
tions : " I want to know ! " 

I thought I had a very pretty story to tell here of the manner in 
which our young student-at-law won the affections of the Lowell 
mill-girls : How one of the girls brought a suit against a wealthy 
corporation of mill-owners for a small sum of disputed wages, and 
employed Mr. B. F. Butler to prosecute her claim : How he looked 
about the mills of the company to find a piece of property to " at- 
tach," of "about the value" of the amount demanded : How he could 
not attach the real estate of the company, because that would have 
entailed upon him the necessity of giving a bond for an odd mil- 
lion or so, which neither he nor his client could do ; and how the 
same difficulty arose when he proposed to lay the sheriff's paraly- 
zing hand upon the looms, or even upon one of them : How he 
fixed, at length, upon the water-wheel of the principal mill, and 
placed a keeper in charge of the same, to forbid its making a single 
revolution until his client was satisfied : How the managers of the 
mill were brought to reflection by this maneuver, and hastened to 
compromise with the girl ; and how the ingenuity and audacity 
of the young student called the attention of the whole community 
of girls to his talents, and caused him to be employed in all their 



26 



GENET?. A Ti BUTLER BEFORE THE WAR. 



little suits against the mill-owners, and so gave him an excellent 
start in his profession. 

The story has been told and printed a thousand times, and it is 
to this day one of the stock anecdotes of Lowell. General Butler 
informs me, however, that the story is totally destitute of truth. 
No event at all resembling it has ever occurred in his career. 
Moreover, the ruse is a legal impossibility. 

In 1840, being then twenty-two years of age, he was admitted to 
the bar. An early incident brought him into favor with some of 
the mill-owners. There was a strike among his friends and patrons, 
the girls ; two or three thousand of whom assembled in a grove 
near Lowell, to talk over their grievances and organize for their 
redress. They invited the young lawyer to address them, and he 
accepted the invitation. It was a unique position for a gentleman 
of twenty-two, not wanting in the romantic element, to stand before 
an audience of three thousand young ladies, the well-instructed 
daughters of New England farmers and mechanics. He gave them 
sound advice, such as might have come from an older head. Ad- 
mitting the justice of their claims, he showed the improbability of 
their obtaining them at a time when labor was abundant, and places 
in the mills were sought by more girls than could be employed. 
The mill-owners, he said, could, at that time, allow their mills to 
stand idle for a considerable period without serious loss — perhaps, 
even with advantage ; but could the girls afford to lose any con- 
siderable part of a season's wages ? Strikes were always a doubt- 
ful, often a desperate measure, and entailed suffering upon the 
operatives a thousand times greater than the evils for which they 
sought redress. The time might come when a strike would be the 
only course left them ; but, at present, he counseled other mea- 
sures. He concluded by strongly advising the girls to return to 
their work, and endeavor by remonstrance, and, if that failed, by 
appeals to the legislature, to procure a shorter day and juster com- 
pensation. The girls took his advice and returned to work. 

The day's work in the mills was then thirteen hours — a literally 
killing period. Thirteen hours a day in a mill means this : inces- 
sant activity from five in the morning until nine in the evening the 
year round. It means a tired and useless Sunday. It means torpid- 
ity or death to all the nobler faculties. It means a white and bloated 
face, a diseased and languid body, a premature death. As much as 



GENERAL BUTLER BEFORE THE WAR. 



27 



to any other man in Massachusetts the subsequent change to eleven 
hours was owing to " the girl's lawyer," as we shall see in a moment. 

*His advice to the girls, at their mass-meeting in the gro^e, was 
well pleasing to the lords of the mill, some of whom, from this 
time, gave him occasional employment. 

But our young friend remained a democrat — a democrat during 
the administration of General Jackson — a democrat in Lowell, sup- 
posed to be the creation of that protective tariff which a democratic 
majority had reduced and was reducing! It was like living at 
Cape Cod and voting against the fishing bounties, or in Louisiana 
and opposing the sugar duty. And this pr/~ + Acular democrat was a 
man without secrets and without guile ; positive, antagonistic and 
twenty-two ; a friend and disciple of Isaac Hill, and one who had 
seen that little lame hero of democracy assaulted by the huge 
Upham in the streets of Exeter, with feelings not unutterable. In 
such odium were his opinions held in Lowell at that time, that he 
could not appear at the tavern table in court time without being 
tabooed or insulted. The first day of his sitting at dinner with the 
bar, the discussion grew so hot that the main business of the occa- 
sion was neglected, and he concluded that if he meant to take sus- 
tenance at all he must dine elsewhere. He did so for one day; but 
feeling that such a course looked like abandoning the field, he re- 
turned on the day following, and faced the music to the end of the 
session. 

His audacity and quickness stood him in good stead at this pe 
riod. One of his first cases being called in court, he said, in the 
usual way, " Let notice be given !" 

" In what paper ?" asked the aged clerK of the court, a strenuous 
whig. 

" In the Lowell Advertiser" was the reply ; the Loivell Adver- 
tiser being a Jackson paper, never mentioned in a Lowell court ; of 
whose mere existence, few there present would confess a knowl- 
edge. 

"The Lowell Advertiser?" said the clerk, with disdainful non- 
chalance, "I don't know such a paper." 

" Pray, Mr. Clerk," said the lawyer, " do not interrupt the pro- 
ceedings of the court ; for if you begin to tell us what you don't 
know, there will be no time for anything else." 

He was always prompt with a retort of this kind. So, at a la-ter 
a 



28 



GENERAL BUTLER BEFORE THE WAR. 



day, when he was cross-questioning a witness in not the most re- 
spectful manner, and the court interposing, reminded him that the 
witness was a professor in Harvard college, he instantly replied : 
" I am aware of it, your honor ; we hung one of them the othei 
day." 

His politics were not, in reality, an obstacle to his success at the 
bar, though his friends feared they would be. There are two sides 
to every suit ; and as people go to law to win, they are not likely 
to overlook an advocate who, besides the ordinary motives to exer- 
tion, has the stimulus of political and social antagonism. He won 
his way rapidly to a lucrative practice, and with sufficient rapidity, 
to an important, leading, conspicuous practice. He was a bold, 
diligent, vehement, inexhaustible opponent. He accepted the the- 
ory of his profession without limitation or reserve, conceiving it to 
be his duty to save or serve his client with not the slightest regard 
to the moral aspects of the matter in dispute. That is the concern 
of the law-maker and the court ; the advocate's business, in his 
opinion, is simply and solely, to serve his client's interests. And if 
there should be lawyers at all, this is, beyond question, the correct 
theory of the vocation. 

In some important particulars, General Butler surpassed all his 
contemporaries at the New England bar. His memory was such, 
that he could retain the whole of the testimony of the very longest 
trial without taking a note. His power of labor seemed unlimited 
In fertility of expedient, and in the lightning quickness of his de- 
vices, to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, his equal has sel 
dom lived. To these gifts, add a perseverance that knew no dis- 
couragement, and never accepted defeat while one possibility of 
triumph remained. One who saw him much at the bar in former 
times, wrote of him three years ago : 

" His devices and shifts to obtain an acquittal and release are ab- 
solutely endless and innumerable. He is never daunted or baffled 
until the sentence is passed and put into execution, and the reprieve, 
par d oi;, or commutation is refused. An indictment must be drawn 
with the greatest nicety, or it will not stand his criticism. A ver- 

ct of guilty is nothing to him ; it is only the beginning of the case ; 
ne has fifty exceptions ; a hundred motions in arrest of judgment ; 
and after that the habeas cor}ms and personal replevin. The op- 
posing counsel never begins to feel safe until the evidence is all in ; 



GENERAL BUTLER BEFORE THE WAR. 



29 



for he knows not what new dodges Butler may spring upon him. 
He is more fertile in expedients than any man who practices law 
among ns. His expedients frequently fail, but they are generally plau- 
sible enough to bear the test of trial. And faulty and weak as they 
oftentimes are, Butler always has confidence in them to the last ; 
and when one fails, he invariably tries another. If it were not that 
there must be an end to everything, his desperate cases would 
never be finished, for there would be no end to his expedients to 
obtain his case." 

An old friend and fellow-practitioner of General Butler, Mr. J. Q. 
A. A. Griffin, of Charlestown, Massachusetts, favors the reader with 
some interesting reminiscences of the general's career at the bar : 

" General Butler," he remarks, " has the power possessed by but 
few men, of attending to several important mental operations at the 
same time. An incident will show you my meaning : 

"In a trial of a quite important matter, in the year 1860, I was 
counsel on the same side with General Butler. It was a busy 
season of the year for lawyers like him who always had an over 
flowing docket. The trial began just after his return from the 
nomination of Breckinridge. He was to make a report of his doings 
to his constituents at Lowell. The meeting was called to be held 
at night. Dissatisfaction existed in the party, and the General 
therefore must speak with care and consideration. He determined 
to write what he was to say. But the court began early and sat 
late. He took his seat in court, and while the adverse party ex- 
amined their witnesses in chief, he wrote out his speech, appa- 
rently absorbed therein. But he cross-examined each witness at 
great length, with wonderful thoroughness and acuteness, evincing 
a perfect knowledge, not only of what the witness had said in sub- 
stance, but when needful, of the phrases in which he had uttered it. 
At noon, over our dinner, he read over what he had written and 
made such corrections as were needful, which were quite as few, 
I thought, as would have been found if the speech had been written 
m the quiet of his study. In the afternoon he went through the 
same routine, and at night made his speech. This is but an in- 
wrance. Amid confusion of transactions, where other men became 
indecisive, he always saw his way clear. Whatever his occupa- 
tions, however intently his mind was employed, it was always safe 
to interrupt him by suggestions or inquiries about the matter in 



30 



GENERAL BUTLER BEFORE THE WAR. 



hand, or anything else, for he could answer on the instant, clearly 
and without the slightest confusion, or distraction of his purpose. 

" Unexampled success attended his professional efforts, so char 
acterized by shrewdness and zeal. When the war summoned him 
from these toils, he had a larger practice than any other man in the 
state. I have no doubt, he tried four times more causes, at least, 
than any other lawyer, during the ten years preceding the war. 
The same qualities which make him efficient in the war, made him 
efficient as a lawyer. Fertile in resources and stratagem ; earnest 
and zealous to an extraordinary degree ; certain of the integrity of 
his client's cause, and not inclined to criticise or inquire whether 
it was strictly ' constitutional' or not, but defending the whole 
line with a boldness and energy that generally carried court and 
jury alike. His ingenuity is exhaustless. If he makes a mistake 
in speech or action, it has no sinister effect, for the reason that he 
will himself discover and correct the error, before any 'barren spec- 
tator' has seized upon it. 

" He is faithful and tenacious to the last degree. There is no 
possibility of treachery in his conduct. 1 He would not betray the 
devil to his fellow.' Every other prominent Massachusetts demo- 
crat, when it became profitable to do so, condemned a previous 
co alition that had been entered into between them and the free- 
soilers after they had taken and consumed its fruits. General But- 
ler's political interests strongly urged him to the same dishonor. 
But he never hesitated an instant, and uniformly justified the 
coalition, and openly defended it in every presence and to the most 
unwilling ears. In his personal relations the same traits are obser- 
vable. He is quite too ready, I have sometimes thought, to for- 
give (he never forgets) injuries, but his memory never fails as to 
his friends. 

" ' The basis of Napoleon's character,' says Gourgand, 4 was a 
pleasant humor.' ' And a man who jests,' continues Victor Hugo, 
1 at important junctures, is on familiar terms with events.' 

" A pleasant humor and a lively wit, and their constant exercise, 
are the possession and the habit of General Butler. Everybody 
has his anecdote of him. Let me refer to one anecdote of him in 
this respect, and that shall suffice for the hundreds that I might 
recall. 

"The general was a member of our house of representatives 



GENEEAL BUTI.EE BEFOEE THE WAE. 



31 



one year, when his party was in a hopeless and impotent minority, 
except on such occasions as he contrived to make it efficient by 
tactics and stratagems of a technical, parliamentary character. The 
speaker was a whig, and a thorough partisan. The whigs were 
well drilled and had a leader on the floor of very great capacity, 
Mr. Lord, of Salem. During one angry debate, General Butler 
attempted to strangle an obnoxious proposal of the majority by 
tactics. Accordingly he precipitated upon the chair divers ques- 
tions of order and regularity of proceeding, one after the other. 
These were debated by Mr. Lord and himself, and then decided by 
the speaker uniformly according to the notions advanced by Mr.* 
Lord. The general bore this for some time without special com- 
plaint, contenting himself with raising new questions. At length, 
however, he called special attention to the fact that he had been 
overruled so many times by the chair, within such a space of time, 
and that, as often, not only had the speaker adopted the result of 
Mr. Lord's suggestions, but generally had accepted the same words 
in which to announce it ; and, said he, ' Mr. speaker, I cannot com- 
plain of these rulings. They doubtless seem to the speaker to be 
just. I perceive an anxiety on your part to be just to the minority 
and to me, by whom at this moment they are represented, for, like 
Saul, on the road to Damascus, your constant anxiety seems to be, 
Loed, what wilt thou have me to do ?' 

" £To man in America can remember facts, important and unim- 
portant, like General Butler. Whatever enters his mind remains 
there for ever. And his knowledge, as I have said, is available the 
instant it is needed, without confusion or tumult of thought. The 
testimony delivered through days of dreary trials, without minutes 
or memoranda of any kind, he could recall in fresher and more ac- 
curate phrases, remembering always the substance, and generally 
all the important expressions, with far more precision than the 
other counsel and the court could gather it from their 'writing 
books,' wherein they had endeavored to record it. Practice for a 
long series of years had so disciplined his mind in this respect that 
I think it quite impossible for him to forget. And as he has mingled 
constantly with every business and interest of humanity since he 
was admitted to the bar, he has become possessed of a marvelous 
extent and variety of knowledge respecting the affairs of mankind." 

These passages, written by men conversant with the bar of 



32 



GEXEEAL BUTLER BEFOEE THE WAJ4. 



Massachusetts, and who knew him before he had become known to 
the nation, are better for our purpose than the observations of later 
friends. They illustrate the main position, that General Butler 
used all the means known to the law to get his cases, leaving the 
whole responsibility of maintaining justice to those who made and 
those who administered the laws. 

One example of what a writer styles General Butler's legerde- 
main. A man in Boston, of respectable connections and some 
wealth, being afflicted with a mania for stealing, was, at length, 
brought to trial on four indictments ; and a host of lawyers were 
assembled, engaged in the case, expecting a long and sharp con- 
test. It was hot summer weather ; the judge was old and indo- 
lent ; the officers of the court were weary of the session, and anxious 
to adjourn. General Butler was counsel for the prisoner. It is a 
law in Massachusetts, that the repetition of a crime by the same 
offender, within a certain period, shall entail a severer punishment 
than the first offense. A third repetition, involves more severity, 
and a fourth, still more. According to this law, the prisoner, if 
convicted on all four indictments, would be liable to imprisonment 
in the penitentiary, for the term of sixty years. As the court was 
assembling, General Butler remonstrated with the counsel for the 
prosecution, upon the rigor of their proposed proceedings. Surely, 
one indictment would answer the ends of justice ; why condemn 
the man to imprisonment for life for what was, evidently, more a 
disease than a crime ? They agreed, at length, to quash three of 
the indictments, on condition that the prisoner should plead guilty 
to the one which charged the theft of the greatest amount. The 
prisoner was arraigned. 

" Are you guilty, or not guilty ?" 

" Say guilty, sir," said General Butler, from his place in the bar, 
in his most commanding tone. 

The man cast a helpless, bewildered look at his counsel, and said 
nothing. 

" Say guilty, sir," repeated the General, looking into the prison- 
er's eyes. 

The man, without a will, was compelled to obey, by very con- 
stitution of his infirm mind. 

" Guilty," he faltered, and sunk down into his seat, crushed with 
a sense of shame. 



GENERAL BUTLER BEFORE THE WAR. '3 J 

"Now, gentlemen," said the counsel for the prisoner, "have I, 
or have I not, performed my part of the compact ?" 
"You have." 
" Then perform yours." 

This was done. A Nol. Pros, was duly entered upon the three 
indictments. The counsel for the prosecution immediately moved 
for sentence. 

General Butler then rose, with the other indictment in his hand^ 
and pointed out a flaw in it, manifest and fatal. The error con- 
sisted in designating the place where the crime was committed. 

" Your honor perceives," said the general, " that this court has 
no jurisdiction in the matter. I move that the prisoner be dis- 
charged from custody." 

Ten minutes from that time, the astounded man was walking out 
of the court-room free. 

The flaw in the indictment, General Butler discovered the mo- 
ment after the compact was made. If he had gone to the prisoner, 
and spent five minutes in inducing him to consent to the arrange- 
ment, the sharp opposing counsel, long accustomed to his tactics, 
would have suspected a ruse, and eagerly scanned the indictment. 
He relied, therefore, solely on the power which a man, with a will, 
has over a man who has none, and so merely commanded the plea 
of guilty. The court, it is said, not unwilling to escape a long trial, 
laughed at the maneuver, and complimented the successful lawyer 
upon the excellent " discipline" which he maintained among his 
clients. 

This was a case of legal " legerdemain." Many of General But- 
ler's triumphs, however, were won after long and perfectly con- 
tested struggles, which fully and legitimately tested his strength as 
a lawyer. Perhaps, as a set-off to the case just related, I should 
give one of the other description. 

A son of one of the general's most valued friends made a voyage 
to China as a sailor before the mast, and returned with his consti- 
tution ruined through the scurvy, his captain having neglected to 
supply the ship with the well-known antidotes to that disease, lime 
juice and fresh vegetables. A suit for damages was instituted on 
the part of the crew against the captain. General Butler was re- 
tained to conduct the cause of the sailors, and Mr. Rufus Choate 
defended the captain. The trial lasted nineteen working days. 



34 



GENEEAL BUTLER BEE0EE THE "WAE. 



General Butler's leading positions were: 1. That the captain wafl 
bound to procure fresh vegetables if he could ; and, 2. That he 
could. In establishing these two points, he displayed an amount 
of learning, ingenuity and tact, seldom equaled at the bar. The 
whole of sanitary science and the whole of sanitary law, the nar- 
ratives of all navigators and the usages of all navies, reports of 
parliamentary commissions and the diaries of philanthropical in- 
vestigators, ancient log-books and new treatises of maritime law ; 
the testimony of mariners and the opinions of physicians, all were 
made tributary to his cause. He exhibited to the jury a large map 
of the world, and, taking the log of the ship in his hand, he read 
its daily entries, and as he did so, marked on the map the ship's 
course, showing plainly to eye of the jury, that on four different 
occasions, while the crew were rotting with the scurvy, the ship 
passed within a few hours' sail of islands, renowned in all those seas 
for the abundance, the excellence, and the cheapness of their vege- 
tables. Mr. Choate contested every point with all his skill and 
eloquence. The end of the daily session was only the beginning of 
General Butler's day's work ; for there were new points to be in- 
vestigated, other facts to be discovered, more witnesses to be 
hunted up. He rummaged libraries, he pored over encyclopedias 
and gazetteers, he ferreted out old sailors, and went into court every 
morning with a mass of new material, and followed by a train of 
old doctors or old salts to support a position shaken the day before. 
In the course of the trial, he had on the witness-stand nearly every 
eminent physician in Boston, and nearly every sea-captain and ship- 
owner. Justice and General Butler triumphed. The jury gave 
damages to the amount of three thousand dollars ; an award whicn 
to-day protects American sailors on every sea. 

Such energy and talent as this, could not fail of liberal reward. 
After ten years of practice at Lowell, with frequent employment in 
Boston courts, General Butler opened an office in Boston, and thence- 
forward, in conjunction with a partner in each city, carried on two 
distinct establishments. For many years he was punctual at the 
depot in Lowell at seven in the morning, summer and winter ; at 
Boston soon after eight : in court at Boston from half past nine til] 
near five in the afternoon ; back to Lowell, and to dinner at half 
past six; at his office in Lowell from half past seven till midnight, 
or later. When the war broke out, he had the most lucrative prao- 



GENERAL 




35 



tice in New England — worth, at a moderate estimate, eighteen 
thousand dollars a year. At the moment of hi» saving for the 
scene of war, the list of cases in which he was retained numbered 
five hundred. Happily married at an early age to a lady, in whom 
are united the accomplishments which please, and the qualities that 
inspire esteem, blessed with three affectionate children,he enjoyed 
at his beautiful home, on the lofty banks of the tumbling Merri- 
mac, a most enviable domestic felicity. At the age of forty, though 
he had lived liberally, he was in a condition to retire from business 
if he had so chosen. 

Such particulars, in an ordinary sketch of a living man, would, 
perhaps, be out of place. In the present instance they constitute part 
of the case. I hold this opinion : that no man is fit to be entrusted 
with public affairs who has not successfully managed his own. And 
this other opinion: the fact that a man has conducted his own 
affairs with honorable success is a reason for believing that his 
management of public affairs has been just and wise. 

Mr. Griffin well remarks that a lawyer in great practice as an 
advocate has peculiar opportunities of acquiring peculiar knowl- 
edge. That famous scurvy case, for example, made him acquainted 
with the entire range of sanitary science. A great bank case opens 
all the mysteries of finance ; a bridge case the whole art of bridge 
building ; a railroad case the law and usages of all railroads. A 
few years ago when General Butler served as one of the examiners 
at West Point, he put a world of questions to the graduating class 
upon subjects connected with the military art, indicating unexpected 
specialities of knowledge in the questioner. " But how did you 
know anything about that ?" his companions would ask. " Oh, I 
once had a case which obliged me .to look into it." This answer 
was made so often that it became the jocular custom of the com- 
mittee, when any knotty point arose in conversation, to ask General 
Butler whether he had not had a case involving it. The knowing- 
ness and direct manner of this Massachusetts lawyer left such an 
impression upon the mind of one of the class, (the lamented Gene- 
ral George G. Strong,) that he sought service under him in the war 
five years after. This curious speciality of information, particularly 
his intimate knowledge of nhips, banks, railroads, sanitary science, 
and engineering, was of the utmost value to him and to the country 
at a later day. 




36 



GENERAL BUTLER BEFORE THE WAR. 



And now a few words upon the political career of General But 
ler in Massachusetts. Despite his enormous and incessant labors at 
the bar, he was a busy and eager politician. From his twentieth 
year he was wont to stump the neighboring towns at election time, 
and from the year 1844, never failed to attend the national conven- 
tions of his party. Upon all the questions, both of state and 
national politics, which have agitated Massachusetts during the last 
twenty years, his record is clear and ineffaceable. Right or wrong, 
there is not the slightest difficulty in knowing where he has stood 
or stands. He has, in perfection, what the French call "the courage 
of opinion;" which a man could not fail to have who has passed his 
whole life in a minority, generally a hopeless minority, but a minor- 
ity always active, incisive, and inspired with the audacity which 
comes of having nothing to lose. I need not remind any American 
reader that during the last twenty-five years the democratic party 
in Massachusetts has seldom had even a plausible hope of carrying 
an election. If ever it has enjoyed a partial triumph, it has been 
through the operation of causes which disturbed the main issue, 
and enabled the party to combine with factions temporarily severed 
from a majority otherwise invincible. 

The politics of an American citizen, for many years past, have 
been divided into two parts : 1 . His position on the questions af- 
fected by slavery. 2. His position on questions not affected by 
slavery. Let us first glance at General Butler's course on the class 
of subjects last named. 

As a state politician, then, the record of which lies before me in a 
heap of pamphlets, reports, speeches, and proceedings of delibera- 
tive bodies, I find his course to have been soundly democratic, a 
champion of fair play and «qual rights. In that great struggle 
which resulted in the passage of the eleven-hour law, he was a can- 
didate for the legislature, on the " ten-hour ticket," and fought the 
battle with all the vigor and tact which belonged to him. A few 
days before the election, as he was seated in his .office at Lowell, a 
deputation of workingmen came to him, excited and alarmed, with 
the news, that a notice had been posted in the mills, to the effect, 
that any man who voted the Butler ten-hour ticket would be dis- 
charged. 

" Get out a hand-bill," said the general, " announcing that I will 
address the workingmen to-morrow evening." 



GENERAL BUTLER BEFORE THE WAR. 



37 



The hall was so crammed with people that the speaker had to be 
passed in over the heads of the multitude. He began his speed 
with unwonted calmness, amid such breathless silence as falls upon 
an assembly when the question in debate concerns their dearest 
interests — their honor, and their livelihood. He began by saying 
that he was no revolutionist. How could he be in Lowell, where 
were invested the earnings of his laborious life, and where the value 
of all property depended upon the peaceful labors of the men 
.before him? Nor would he believe that the notice posted in 
the mills was authorized. Some underling had doubtless done 
it to propitiate distant masters, misjudging them, misjudging the 
workingmen of Lowell. The owners of the mills were men too 
wise, too just, or, at least, too prudent, to authorize a measure 
which absolutely extinguished government ; which, at once, invited, 
justified, and necessitated anarchy. For tyranny less monstrous 
than this, men of Massachusetts had cast off their allegiance to the 
king of Great Britain, and plunged into the bloody chaos of revo- 
lution ; and the directors of the Lowell mills must know that the 
sons stood ready, at any moment, to do as their sires had done 
before them. But this he would say : If it should prove that the 
notice was authorized ; if men should be deprived of the means of 
earning their bread for having voted as their consciences directed, 
then, woe to Lowell! "The place that knows it shall know U 
no more for ever. To my own house, I, with this hand, will first 
apply the torch. I ask but this : give me time to get out my wife 
and children. All I have in the world I consecrate to the names!" 

Those who have heard General Butler speak can form an idea of 
the tremendous force with which he would utter words like these. 
He is a man capable of infinite wrath, and, on this occasion, he was 
stirred to the depths of his being. The audience were so power- 
fully moved, that a cry arose for the burning of the town that very 
night, and there was even the beginning of a movement toward the 
doors. But the speaker instantly relapsed into the tone and line, 
of remark with which he had begun the speech, and concluded 
with a solemn appeal to every voter present to vote as his judg- 
ment and conscience directed, with a total disregard to personal 
consequences. 

The next morning the notice was no more seen. The election 
oassed peacefully away, and the ten-hour ticket was elected. Two 



38 



GENERAL BUTLER BEFORE THE WAR. 



priceless hours were thus rescued from the day of toil, and added 
to those which rest and civilize. 

The possibility of high civilization to the whole community — the 
mere possibility — depends upon these two things : an evening of 
leisure, and a Sunday without exhaustion. These two, well im- 
proved during a whole lifetime, will put any one of fair capacity in 
possession of the best results of civilization, social, moral, intel- 
lectual, esthetic. And this is the meaning and aim of democracy — 
to secure to all honest people a fair chance to acquire a share of 
those things, which give to life its value, its dignity, and its joy. 
Justly, therefore, may we class measures which tend to give the 
laborer a free evening as democratic. 

In the legislature, to which General Butler was twice elected, 
once to the assembly, and once to the senate, he led the opposition 
to the old banking system, and advocated that which gives perfect 
security to the New York bill-holder, and which is often styled 
the New York system, recently adopted as a national measure. 
He had the courage, too, to report a bill for compensating the 
proprietors of the Ursuline convent of Charlestown, destroyed, 
twenty years ago, by a mob, and standing now a blackened ruin, 
reproaching the commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is said, that 
he would have succeeded in getting his bill passed, had not an in- 
tervening Sunday given the Calvinistic clergy an opportunity to 
bring their artillery to bear upon it. He represented Lowell in the 
convention to revise the constitution of Massachusetts, a few years 
ago, and took a leading part in its proceedings. With these ex- 
ceptions, though he has run for office a hundred times, he has 
figured only in the forlorn hope of the minority, climbing toward 
the breach in every contest, with as much zeal as though he ex- 
pected to reach the citadel. 

" But why so long in the minority ? why could he and Massa- 
chusetts never get into accord?" This leads us to consider his 
position in national politics. 

Gentlemen of General Butler's way of thinking upon the one 
national question of the last twenty years have been styled " pro- 
slavery democrats." This expression, as applied to General Butler 
is calumnious. I can find no utterance of his which justifies it ; bur 
on the contrary, in his speeches, there is an evidently purposed 
avoidance of expressions that could be construed into an approba- 



GENERAL BUTLER BEFORE THE WAR. 



39 



tion of slavery. The nearest approach to anything like an apology 
for the " institution" which appears in his speeches, is the expression 
of an opinion, that sudden abolition would be ruin to the master, 
and a doubtful good to the slave. On the other hand, there is no 
word in condemnation of slavery . There is even an assumption that 
with the moral and philanthropic aspects of slavery, we of the north 
iiad nothing to do. He avowed the opinion, that we were bound 
to stand by the compromises of the constitution, not in the letter 
merely, but in the spirit, and that the spirit of those compromises 
bound the government to give slavery a chance in the territories. 

I have been curious to inquire of Hunker Democrats in Massa- 
chusetts how this subject presented itself to their minds in former 
years, so as to lead them to an opinion violently opposed to the 
moral feeling of the communities in which they lived. This is the 
more puzzling, from the fact that many of the ablest of them had 
not the slightest expectation or desire of political position, but 
maintained their ground for half a lifetime from the purest convic- 
tion. I have read to some of these gentlemen the conversation, 
published a year or two since, between Commodore Stuart and Mr. 
Calhoun in 1812, of which the following is the material portion : 

Mr. Calhoun : " I admit your conclusion in respect to us South- 
rons. That we are essentially aristocratic, I cannot deny, but we 
can and do yield much to democracy. This is our sectional policy ; 
we are, from necessity, thrown upon, and solemnly wedded to that 
party, however it may occasionally clash with our feelings for the 
conservation of our interests. It is through our affiliation with that 
party in the middle and western states that we hold power ; but 
when we cease thus to control this nation, through a disjointed 
democracy, or any material obstacle in that party which shall tend 
to throw us out of that rule and control, we shall then resort to the 
dissolution of the Union. The compromises in the constitution, 
under the circumstances, were sufficient for our fathers, but under 
the altered condition of our country from that period, leave to the 
South no resource but dissolution ; for no amendments to the con- 
stitution can be reached through a convention of the people under 
their three-fourths rule." 

Commodore Stuart (laughing incredulously), "Well, Mr. Cal- 
houn, ere such can take place, you and I will have been so long non 
est, that we can now laugh at its possibility, and leave it with com- 



40 



GENERAL BUTLER BEFORE THE WAR. 



placency to our children's children, who will then have the watch 
on deck." 

Here was the southern programme frankly disclosed just fifty 
years ago. I have, also, pointed out the constantly aggressive 
policy of the southern leaders ; their arrogance, their ceaseless and 
violent agitation of the slavery question ; absolutely fore ing it upon 
the northern mind, aud constantly supplying the abolitionists of the 
north with new arguments and new motives. Now, the puzzling 
question is this : How could men of spirit and discernment, hav- 
ing no political aspirations, submit so long to be used by these 
people for their purposes, and those purposes bad ? 

Perhaps, I can now throw a little light upon this subject. 

Even in the errors of honest men there is something of nobleness. 
The basis of General Butler's interest in politics, and that of his 
hunker friends was, and is an entire and fond belief in the principles 
upon which this government was founded, and an intense desire 
that the great Experiment should gloriously succeed. Among edu 
cated Americans, there are two kinds of men, namely, democrats 
and snobs. The gentlemen, of wtiom I speak, are democrats. 
In the very strength of their attaenment to democratic principles, 
is to be found the cause of their ignoring the claims upon our con- 
sideration of the four million black laborers, who earn an import- 
ant part of the country's revenue. They thought that any ques- 
tion of their rights was petty in comparison with the mighty stake 
of mankind in the union of these states, and the triumph of demo- 
cratic institutions. The only danger to the Union, as they thought, 
arose from the agitation of questions respecting slavery, and they 
strove with all their might to avert or clefer it. 

Again: The leading democrats of the North were personally 
acquainted with the leaders of the South, and knew that they were 
prepared to fight for slavery. Republicans were incredulous on 
this point, down to the time of the bombardment of Fort Sumter. 
They were accustomed to laugh at Mr. Buchanan's terrors as those 
of a weak and timorous old man, and to despise the threats of the 
southern fire-eaters as the vaporings of demagogues and braggado- 
cios. Democrats knew better. They were perfectly aware that 
the South was, at all times, ready to take up arms the moment it 
should feel really alarmed for the safety of the thing they call their 
4 institution.' As Mr. Choate, one day, was about to make a 'union 



GENERAL BUTLER BEFORE THE WAR. 



41 



aaving' speech, his partner and son-in-law, Major Bell, said to 
him: • 

"Don't you think the people are getting tired of this sort of 
thing ?" 

" Yes," said Mr. Choate, " they are perfectly sick of it. They 
don't believe the Union in danger. But if they knew the South as 
I know it, they would be more frightened than I am." 

Such men as Mr. Choate saw the open abyss, and could see be- 
yond it — nothing! The spell of the Union once broken, what 
could come but chaos ? This terror of an immeasurable danger ; 
this dread of a convulsion which, having occurred, no man could 
foresee any probable end of any kind ; this look-out upon a sea of 
difficulty, of which nothing could be known except that it was 
tempest-tossed, and full of all perils ; it was this that made so many 
honest patriots shut their eyes, on principle, to the moral aspects 
of slavery questions, and impelled them to concede, and concede, 
and concede to the slave power. And thus it was, that the very 
love of freedom worked to the support of slavery. 

At the same time, democrats, though they had some external 
familiarity with slaveholders, knew nothing about slavery. They 
did not wish to know anything about it. They would not know 
anything about it. They shut their ears, on principle, to the cry of 
the slave, the pleading of the abolitionist, and the arguments of the 
statesmen who strove to keep the giant evil from spreading. How 
easily the human mind excludes from itself unwelcome knowledge, 
is known to all who have observed the workings of their own minds. 

Besides : If the South used the democratic party, the democratic 
party used the South. Each was absolutely dependent upon the 
other for any constitutional success. 

And yet again: Democrats, looking at the subject through 
southern eyes, were compelled to consider questions respecting 
slavery in a practical manner — as questions affecting the power, the 
property, the existence of their friends and others. Men of the 
other party contemplated the subject more in the spirit of a moral 
essayist ; it did not threaten business or firesides ; it was something 
abstract and remote. One party propounded moral truths and 
philanthropic sentiments j the other had always the question upper- 
most in their minds : " Well, what is to be done about it ?" 

I do not suppose that the fear of impending danger was conscious- 



42 



GENERAL BUTLER BEFORE THE WAR. 



ly present in the mind of General Butler in those years ; but it 
doubtless had its influence. A ruling motive with him was a keen 
sense of the sacredness of compacts. Add to this a strong, heredi- 
tary party spirit, and some willful pleasure in acting with a minority. 
In his speeches on the slavery question there is candor, force and 
truth ; and their argument is unanswerable, if it be granted that 
slavery can have any rights whatever not expressly granted by the 
letter of the constitution. There is nothing in them of base sub- 
serviency, nothing of insincerity, nothing uncertain, no vote-catch- 
ing vagueness. 

When the wretched Brooks had committed the assault upon 
Charles Sumner in the senate chamber, there were men of Massa- 
chusetts^ who, surpassing the craven baseness of Brooks himself 
gave him a supper, and stooped even to sit at the table and help 
him to eat it. General Butler, blazing with divine wrath, publicly 
denounced the act in Washington in such terms as became a man, 
and called upon Mr. Sumner to express his horror and his sympa- 
thy. He saw with his own eyes, and felt \* 'th his own hands, that 
the wounds could only have been given while the senator was beud- 
ing low over his desk, absorbed and helpless. 

When John Brown, the sublime madman, or else the one sane 
man in a nation mad, had done the deed for which unborn pilgrims 
will come from afar, to look upon the sod that covers his bones, 
General Butler spoke at a meeting held in Lowell, to reassure the 
alarmed people of the South. This speech very fairly represents 
his habit of thought upon the vexed subject before the war. He 
spoke in strong reprobation of northern abolitionists, and southern 
fire-eaters, as men equally guilty of inflaming and misleading their 
fellow-citizens ; so that, at length, it had come to pass, that neither 
section understood the other. " The mistake," said he, " is mu- 
tual. We look at the South through the medium of the aboli- 
tionist orators — a very distorted picture. The South see us only as 
rampant abolitionists, ready to make a foray upon their rights and 
property." 

" It is," he continued, " the province of such meetings as this, which are 
now being holden throughout the North, to correct on our part this picture 
of ourselves to our southern brethren, to convince them of the truth, as we 
believe and know it — that by far the largest portion of the North are true 
in heart and spirit in their devotion to the Union, and in their determination 



GENERAL BUTLER BEFORE THE WAR. 



to curry out the only principles by which its full benefit can be enjoyed in 
the fair, just and honest fulfillment of every constitutional requirement, both 
in spirit and in letter, with each state, and to the whole country. 

"And let us not be taunted with ' truckling to the South,' or seeking to 
curry favor by so doing. It is not so ; and it is neither correct nor manly so 
to state it. Let us fairly appreciate the difference of our position. These 
questions, which to us locally are of so little practical consequence as hardly 
to call our attention, are to them the very foundations of society — ominous 
of rapine, murder, and all the horrors of a servile war, in their practical 
application. 

" And because the discussions of the question about negro emancipation 
do not disquiet us here, we should be blind indeed not to see the wide 
difference of such discussions to them, if the results are reduced to practice. 
Then may we not, ought we not, who are so little, as to ourselves, practically 
interested in this matter, take the first step, if need be, toward alia v in g their 
excitement on this subject? 

"We claim to be in proportion of fifteen millions of freemen to six 
millions. Can it fairly be said to be ' truckling,' to hold out to them the 
hand of amity upon a cause of real or supposed grievances ? It would not 
be so thought amongst belligerent foreign countries. We are the stronger, 
as we consider ourselves. To make overtures of peace to the weaker ought 
to be considered our part among friendly states. 

"Therefore, I began by saying: 'It is well for us to be 1 gathered here.' 
Let us proclaim to all men, that the Union, first and foremost of all the good 
gifts of God, must and shall be preserved. That it is a duty we recognize 
and will fulfill, to grant to every part of the country its rights as guaranteed 
by the constitution, and due by the compact. That we will, and every part 
of the country shall, respect those institutions of every other part of the 
country, with which they and we have nothing to do, save to let them alone, 
whether they are palatable to us or not. 

" We have the right to form our own domestic institutions as we please, 
to our own liking, and not to any other community's liking, and will exer- 
cise that right, and under the constitution, must be protected in that right. 
Every other state has the same right to please herself in her own institu- 
tions, and is not obliged to please us in her selection of them ; and as in 
duty, and of right bound to do, we will protect her in that right, whether 
we like them or not. • 

" Thus doing our duty, and claiming our rights, and granting those of 
others, as every man will do, who is a just man, and not a thief — must not 
the union be perpetual? Let no man mistake upon the matter. This 
Union, this republic, the great experiment of equal rights, this power of 
self-government by the people, this great instrument of civilization, the 
banding together of the intellectual and political power of those races 



44 



GENERAL BUTLER BEFORE THE WAR. 



which are to civilize the world b y their energy of action, is not to fail, and 
human progress be set back a thousand years, because of the difference of 
opinion as to the supposed rights and interests of a few negroes. 

" As well might the peasant expect the Almighty to stay the thunder 
storm, which, by its beneficent action, clears the atmosphere of a nation 
from pestilence, lest the lightning bolt should in its flash kill his cow. This 
Union is strong enough to take care of itself, to protect each and every part 
from foreign aggression or internal dissension, to keep everybody in it that 
is desirable to have in it, to take in everybody that ought to be in it, and 
to keep out everybody that is not wanted in it. 

"It is not like a family, because its members must never separate and 
divide the homestead. It is not like a partnership, because it contains no 
elements or period of dissolution. It is not like a confederation, because it 
contains no clause or means by which one or more of its members can with- 
draw. It is either organization or chaos. It is possible that it may crum- 
ble into atoms. It cannot be split in fragments. A despotism may be 
erected upon its ruins, but little, snarling, imbecile republics can never be 
made from its pieces. 

" 'It is well, then, to be gathered here.' To pledge each other and the 
South, that we are true to each other and to them. To assure them that 
we and we alone speak the true voice of the North. That threats of dis- 
union will never terrify us into being just to her and ourselves. That the 
North shall and will be just to her, because she respects herself as well as 
the South. To assure her that we appreciate her difficulties, and sympa- 
thize with our southern brethren, because we understand the great ques- 
tions which agitate them. To us here they so little enter into our affairs as 
to hardly call the attention of any of us who have anything to do, save to 
annoy our neighbors. Yet to them they are questions of order or anarchy, 
life or death. 

" * It is well, then, to be gathered here.' Again to pledge ourselves to 
each other, that whenever occasion demands, we will march as one man to 
protect our beloved country from all dismemberment, and to bury the traitor 
who shall by overt act attempt it, whether he be a member of the Hartford 
convention, aggrieved because of a commercial question, or a South Caro- 
linian, aggrieved because of a tariff question, or an abolition incendiary who 
seeks civil war and bloodshed at Harper's Ferry. 

" That to us no ' star in our glorious banner differeth from another star 
in glory,' but all must and shall shine on together in one constellation, to 
bless the world with its benign radiance for ever." 

Such were the sentiments of General Butler, in February of the 
year for ever memorable to Americans — 1860. 



IN THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 



4o 



CHAPTER H. 

IN THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 

3e:nebal Butler was elected a delegate to the democratic con 
veDtion, held at Charleston, in April, 1860. 

He went to Charleston with two strong convictions on his mind 
One wa», that concessions to the South had gone as far as the 
northern democracy could ever be induced to sustain. The other 
was, that the fair nomination of Mr. Douglas, by a national demo- 
cratic convention was impossible. 

When the convention had been organized, by the election of Mr. 
Cushing, of Massachusetts, to the chair, a committee was appoint- 
ed of one member from each state, for the purpose of constructing 
that most perplexing piece of political joinery, a Platform. In 
this committee, General Butler represented the state of Massachu- 
setts. 

The committee met. May we not say, that in the room which it 
occupied began the contention which now desolates large por- 
tion i of the southern country. What transpired in the committee 
room has been related, with exactness and brevity, by General But- 
ler nimself. 

'•As a member of the committee," he says,* " I felt that I had 
but one course to pursue, and I held that with unwavering tenacity 
of purpose. It was to obtain the affirmation of these democratic 
principles, laid down at Cincinnati, with which we had outrode the 
storm of sectionalism in 1856.* * * * 

" With these views, I proposed, in committee, the following reso- 
lution : 

" ''Resolved, That we, the democracy of the Union, in convention 
assembled, hereby declare our affirmance of the democratic resolu- 
tions unanimously adopted and declared as a platform of principles 
at Cincinnati, in the year 1856, without addition or alteration ; be- 

* Speech at Lowell, May 15, 1860. 



46 



IN THE CHAELESTON CONVENTION. 



lieving thai democratic principles are unchangeable in their nature, 
when applied to the same subject-matter.' 

" After a long and animated discussion, this was rejected by a 
vote of seventeen states to sixteen ; young Oregon giving the cast- 
ing vote against the Cincinnati platform, to which and the democ- 
racy she owed her existence as a sovereign state. 

"There was but one additional resolution which, it was pro- 
posed, should be added, and that is as follows : 

" ' Resolved, That it is the duty of the United States to extend 
its protection alike over all its citizens, whether native or natural- 
ized.' 

" This was to meet the case of the contradictory interpretations 
of the rights of foreign-born citizens, when abroad, made by the 
State Department. To this I had pledged myself, when the case 
arose. It is but just to add, that to this resolution, no opposition 
was made. The propositions of a majority of the committee were 
then brought forward, and by the same majority of one, were 
passed through the committee. They provided, in substance, for a 
slave code for the territories, and upon the high seas. 

" Upon these two propositions, the committee divided ; sixteen 
free states one way, and fifteen slave states, with Oregon and 
California, the other ; and the difference was apparently irreconcila- 
ble. Without impugning the motives, or too closely criticising 
the course of any member of the committee, I saw, or thought I 
saw, that this disagreement was rather about men than principles. 
It seemed to me, that gentlemen of the extreme South were making 
demands which they did not consider it vital to be passed, lest a 
man should he nominated distasteful to them, and men from the 
North were willing to make concessions not desired by the South, 
and which would not be justified, either by democratic principles 
or their northern constituencies, in order to the success of their 
favorite candidate. 

" Subsequent events showed the correctness of this opinion, be- 
cause, after the minority and majority of the committee had sepa- 
rated, sixteen to seventeen, and each had retired to make up its 
report, and when the sixteen northern states had nothing to do 
save to report the Cincinnati platform, pure and simple, then it was 
that three gentlemen came into the room where the minority of the 
committee were in consultation, and announced themselves as a sub- 



IN THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 



47 



committee of a caucus of the friends of Judge Douglas, charged 
with a resolution which his friends desired to be reported to the 
convention, in order, as the chairman said, ' to help the southern 
Iriends of Judge Douglas.' One member of the committee on 
resolutions (General Butler) immediately raised a point of order. 
He said that the committee of the convention of the whole democ* 
racy, could not act under the dictation of a caucus of anybody's 
friends ; that his self-respect would forbid — that the report of the 
minority of the committee would lose all moral power, if they 
adopted such a resolution thus presented. The point of order of 
that member of the committee was overruled, and the caucus reso- 
lution was received and adopted in the minority report, almost in 
the words in which it was presented and passed in the caucus, as 
follows : 

" 4 Resolved, That all questions in regard to the rights of property 
in states or territories, arising under the constitution of the United 
States, are judicial in their character ; and the democratic party is 
pledged to abide by, and faithfully carry out such determination of 
these questions, as has been, or may be made by the Supreme Court 
of the United States.' 

" This resolution was insisted upon by the committee, as then 
constituted, because it would give aid and ground to stand upon at 
home to the southern friends of Judge Douglas. Not advocated 
on principle, not claimed for the North, but a concession to the 
South, which, as the sequel showed, the South neither desired, 
would adopt or accept. A piece of expediency, which your dele- 
gate would 4 neither adhere to nor carry out.' 

44 To him it seemed quite immaterial whether a slave-code was 
made by congress or the decision of the courts. He had seen some 
of the most obnoxious laws made by judicial decisions, both in 
England and in this country. Indeed, a congressional slave-code 
we)* 1 preferable to one made by a court, because the former could 
be denned, and if unjust, could be repealed, while the latter might 
be indefinite, shifting to meet the exigency of the case, and only 
limited by the partnership, or restrained by the consciences of 
judges holding office by a life-tenure, even if they were appointed 
like the midnight judges ' of John Adams,' in the last hour of an 
expiring administration, upon which the people set the seal of rep- 
robation." 



48 



IN THE CHARLESTON CONTENTION. 



So the committee could not agree. General Butler adhered to 
his proposal of the Cincinnati platform ; the majority adhered to 
their demand for a slave-code for the territories and protection to 
the slave trade ; the minority adhered to the resolution framed by 
Mr. Douglas, which left all questions relating to slavery in the ter- 
ritories to the decision of the Supreme Court. On returning to 
the convention, therefore, the committee furnished three reports, one 
from the majority, one from the minority, and one from Genera. 
Butler ; all agreeing in recommending the Cincinnati platform as a 
basis ; all differing as to the nature of the additional " planks." 

The majority report proposed four additional resolutions re* 
specting slavery : 

"1. Resolved, That the democracy of the United States hold these car- 
dinal principles on the subject of slavery in the territories: First, That con- 
gress* has no power to abolish slavery in the territories. Second, That the 
territorial legislature has no power to abolish slavery in any territory, nor 
to prohibit the introduction of slaves therein, nor any power to exclude 
slavery therefrom, nor any power to destroy or impair the right of property 
in slaves by any legislation whatever. 

" 2. Resolved, That the enactments of state legislatures to defeat the faith- 
ful execution of the fugitive slave law, are hostile in character, subversive 
of the constitution, and revolutionary in their effect. 

" 3. Resolved, That it is the duty of the federal government to protect, 
when necessary, the rights of persons, and property on the high seas, in 
the territories, or wherever else its constitutional authority extends. (De- 
signed to protect the reopened slave trade.) 

"4. Resolved, That the national democracy earnestly recommend the ac- 
quisition of the Island of Cuba at the earliest practicable period." 

The minority report, introduced by Mr. Payne of Ohio, also pre 
sented the Cincinnati platform, with sundry additions, of which the 
following are the important ones : 

" 1. Resolvea, That all questions in regard to the rights of property in 
states or territories, arising under the constitution of the United States, are 
judicial in their character ; and the democratic party is pledged to abide by 
and faithfully carry out such determination of these questions as has been 
or may be made by the Supreme Court of the United States. 

"2. Resolved, That the democratic party are in favor of the acquisition 
of the Island of Cuba, on such terms as shall be honorable to ourselves, and 
just to Spain. 



IN THE CHAKLESTON CONVENTION. 



49 



" 3. Resolved, That the enactments of state legislatures to defeat the faith- 
ful execution of the fugitive slave law, are hostile in character, subversive 
of the constitution, and revolutionary in their effect." 

General Butler reported the two resolutions given in his narra- 
tive. 

Such were the three reports. The first was supposed to express 
the sentiments of the party who afterward selected Mr. Breckin- 
ridge as their candidate. The second Was the Douglas platform. 
The third conveyed the sense of northern democrats, who were 
aware that the Cincinnati platform conceded all to the South, 
that the North could concede. Mr. Douglas perfectly understood 
that, and he invented the device of the Supreme Court, to delay or 
confuse the issue. Each of the reports was explained and advo- 
cated at much length ; the first by Mr. Avery of North Carolina, 
the chairman of the committee ; the second by Mr. Payne of Ohio. 
Toward the close of the day, General Butler obtained the floor, and 
spoke in support of his views to a house crowded and excited be- 
yond description, amid interruptions more entertaining to the audi- 
ence than helpful to the speaker. His speech was ingenious and 
amusing, particularly that part of it which aimed to deprive the 
Douglas men of capital borrowed from the Supreme Court. Some 
of the personal hits produced prodigious effect. 

He began by asking members around him why, if the Cincinnati 
platform was so defective, they had given it such enthusiastic in- 
dorsement in 1856. "I am told that it maybe subjected to two 
interpretations. Will any man here attempt to make a platform 
that will not be subject to two or more interpretations ? Why, sir, 
when Omniscience sends us the Divine law for our guidance through 
life and our hope in death, for 2,000 years almost bands of men 
have been engaged in different interpretations of that Divine law, 
and they have sealed their honesty of purpose with blood — they 
have burned their fellow creatures at the stake as an evidence of 
the sincerity of their faith." (Laughter.) 

Adverting to the resolution which was evidently designed to 
throw the protection of the national flag over the slave trade, he 
humorously affected to be ignorant of its real purpose. "Our 
carping opponents" said he, "will see in it what I am sure southern 
gentlemen do not mean — the reopening of the African slave trade, 



50 



m THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 



and it will be so construed that no man can get rid of the interpre- 
tation. It will be proclaimed from every stump, flaunted from every 
pulpit, thundered from every lyceum in the North, until we, your 
friends — and in no boasting spirit I say, without us you are power 
less— the last refuge of the constitutional rights of the South within 
the Union arc stricken down j)owerless for ever ; so that without 
farther modification it would be impossible for me to adopt the 
majority report." 

He proceeded to show the utter nothingness of the minority reso- 
lution, referring questions in dispute to the Supreme Court : " Now. 
men of the North, suppose that the Supreme Court should decide 
upon questions of property arising in the states — and I hope that 
there is no danger of their so deciding — that slavery exists in Mas- 
sachusetts, and that it was forced upon us by the constitution of the 
United States — are you ready to carry out that decision ? You 
might have to submit to that, but would you not move at once for 
an alteration of that state constitution to prevent such decision tak- 
ing effect, and adopt such other remedies as your good judgment 
might devise ? You, men of the South, suppose you were foolishly 
to go apart from us, and Mr. Seward were to be elected president. 
There sit to-day upon the bench of the Supreme Court nine judges, 
eight of whom are seventy years old, three of them so debilitated 
that they may never take their seats again. What happens? 
Without any act o p congress, Mr. Seward being president of the 
United States that co > reorganized, and it decides that slavery 
nowhere exists by natural law, and that man can hold no property 
in man. What are you to do then ? Are you to abide by the 
decision ?" 

Here, Mr. Bradley Johnson, of Maryland, made a remark im- 
plying that it became the representative of a state which never gav 
a democratic majority to be modest in 'offering advice to a demo 
cratic convention. The retort was ready : 

" You may taunt me with the fact that I am speaking for poor old 
Massachusetts, that has never given a democratic vote since the days 
of Jefferson. She did give a democratic vote then. By that vote 
the South acquired the rich inheritance of Louisiana, and I see here 
from the gulf states men who but for that vote I never would have 
had the pleasure of meeting, except as subjects of Napoleon HI. 
Then do not taunt me with speaking for a state that can not give an 



IN THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 



51' 



electoral vote. I feel mortified enough about it. I do r»ot like to 
be taunted with it ; I do not think it quite kind in my friend from 
Maryland to 1 make the remark he did. I would have thought it 
more unkind if my friend from Mississippi had said anything of the 
kind, but I thought it especially unkind in my friend from Maryland, 
because he violated the well-known maxim in my country, that the 
" pot should never call the kettle black." (Laughter.) 

Mr. Johnson : " While Maryland obeys the laws of the Union, as 
she has ever done and does now, she considers herself equal to all 
other states ; but when she refuses to acknowledge even the force 
of the constitution, and the laws made in pursuance thereof, she 
will then be more modest in the expression of her opinions." 

General Butler : " Comparisons are odious, but I say that any 
man in Massachusetts can walk up to the polls and vote for anybody 
on earth without having his head broken by a cudgel." (Great 
laughter.) 

Mr. Johnson attempted to reply, but General Butler would not 
yield the floor. 

"Very well, then," said the Marylander, "have it so." 

The speaker continued : " I will say this to the gentleman, that 
everything that the democratic party could do in his state has been 
nobly done to protect men in their rights. Will he give old Massa- 
chusetts the same credit, that everything the democracy of Massa- 
chusetts could do to stand by the constitution and the Union, the 
rights of his state and my own, has been done without fear, favor, 
affection, or hope of reward ? (Applause.) Therefore, I say again, 
that I do not like to be told that this platform is only represented 
by states which are sure to give electoral votes for the democratic 
candidate. Let me call the attention of the gentleman from Mary- 
land to the fact, that by the vote from his state the house of repre- 
sentatives got a black republican organization. (Applause.) And 
my gallant friends from Tennessee — are your skirts quite clear ? 
And how stands Kentucky — the dark and bloody battle-ground ? 
She has five to five in the house of representatives, is a cipher 
there, and if they do not take care, will be a cipher in the electoral 
vote. And how stands the old state of North Carolina. Four and 
four in the house of representatives. These states I have enumera- 
ted were never reliable democratic states, and, therefore, I have 
ventured to say, that I have a good right to speak here for the 



.52 



IN THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 



gallant states of the North, who have sometimes given, and always 
want to give, democratic votes." 

General Butler concluded by advising the convention to adopt 
his report, and then "nominate some firm, trustworthy, out-and-out, 
hard working democrat for president, and go home and elect him.'' 

The convention, after debates that threatened to be endless, fol- 
lowed this advice in part. They adopted the report of General 
Butler, with non-essential alterations, by a vote of 230 to 40. 

Then came the tug of war. The platform completed, it remained 
to select a man to stand upon it. 

" The whole discussion of the platform," says General Butler, in 
the narrative quoted above, " led me to the belief that the difference 
was about men, not principles ; and the unfortunate and unjustifiable 
secession of eight of the southern states by their delegates, in 
whole or in part, justifies the statement. When they went out of 
the convention, we had adopted no principles but those to which 
every seceding state, and many of the seceding delegates, had 
been pledged only four years since. There was in this, therefore, 
no disruption, no casus belli, no justification for so serious a step as 
the dismemberment of the democratic party, and endangering the 
harmony and safety of the Union. 

" What then was feared by the seceding states ? Evidently, that 
the majority of the convention, composed of northern delegates, 
would force the nomination of Judge Douglas, who had given an 
interpretation to that platform to which the southern democracy 
would not, and, as their delegates claimed, could not agree. They 
said, ' You, of the North, have the platform ; and if you will put a 
man upon it that has given an interpretation hostile to the South, 
then we can not sustain ourselves at home, if we would,' and the 
more ardent of the southern men added, ' we would not, if we 
could.' 

" That there was this fear of his nomination, was made certain 
by the act of Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and 
Kentucky, who remained in the convention, but by their delegates 
insisted, that if a resolution was not passed, requiring two-thirds of 
the whole electoral college to make a nomination, they, too, would 
withdraw from the convention ; and thereby the convention must 
have been dissolved, as California and Oregon would have gone 
with them, leaving only a minority of the states in number, with a 



IN THE CHAKLESTON CONVENTION. 



53 



loss of every democratic state. The passage of this resolution 
made the nomination of Judge Douglas simply impossible ; and, 
ilthough New York cast her thirty-five votes steadily for him 
afterward, yet she voted for this rule which would render her 
vote for Douglas useless, as it was evident to all that more than 
one-third the convention was unalterably opposed to his nomina- 
tion. 

" I believe there was a majority opposed to him in fact. Grant 
that he received upon one ballot a bare majority of the whole vote. 
But how was that majority made up ? Simply, by the unit rule, 
which stifled minorities in northern states, under instructions. In 
New York, there were fifteen votes opposed to Judge Douglas, 
from first to last, yet these thirty-five votes were cast for him on 
every ballot. In Ohio six votes, in Indiana five votes, and Minne- 
sota two votes were opposed to him, yet by that rule cast for him, 
so that the majority was more apparent than real. The southern 
states generally acting without direct instructions, by a cunningly 
devised resolution of the committee on organization, were for the 
most part voting separately, so that all of Judge Douglas's strength 
in the southern delegations, substantially appeared. 

Now, with the South opposed to Judge Douglas, even to the dis- 
ruption of the party ; with every democratic free state voting against 
lim; with two-thirds of the great state of Pennsylvania firmly 
against him; with one-half, nearly, of New York hostile; New 
Jersey divided, and the only state in New England where the de- 
mocracy can have much hope, Connecticut, nearly equally balanced, 
what was it the part of wisdom for your delegate to do ? Should 
he, coming from a state where there was no hope of a democratic 
electoral vote, persistently endeavor to force upon the democratic 
states a candidate distasteful to them, as shown by those votes, inso- 
much that they were ready to sunder all political ties, rather than 
submit to his nomination ? Were his preferences and yours for a 
given man to be insisted on at all hazards ? He thought not then ; 
he thinks not still. ****** 

"We must accept facts as we find them. A truth is a i ath, 
however unpalatable. No man can act wisely who disregards facts 
and truths in shaping his course, whether in political or other ac- 
tions. ' I icould,' must always wait upon ' I ought.' For these 
reasons before stated, I found Judge Douglas's nomination an im 



54 



IN THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 



possibility, without a disruption of the party and throwing away 
all chance of success. 

" You may say this is a great misfortune. Be it so. It is a fact 
upon which you and I, fellow-democrats, must judge and act. I 
found a very large majority of the democratic states unalterably 
opposed to him. 4 'Tis true 'tis a pity, and pity 'tis, 'tis true.' I 
found him in a bitter feud with a democratic administration, and 
without caring to inquire which is to blame for it, such conflict is 
not a help to democratic votes in a closely contested election, es- 
pecially when the democracy desire to carry the state of Pennsyl- 
vania, where, to say the least, the administration has both prestige 
and power. 

" I found also that Judge Douglas was in opposition to almost the 
entire democratic majority of the senate of the United States. No 
matter who is right or who is wrong, this is not a pleasant position 
for the candidate of the democratic party. I found him opposed by a 
very large majority of the democratic members of the house of repre- 
sentatives. It is doubtless all wrong that this should be so, yet so 
it is. I have heard that the 4 sweetest wine makes the sourest vine- 
gar,' but I never heard of vinegar sour enough to make sweet wine. 
Cold apathy and violent opposition are not the prolific parents of 
votes. I found, worse than all for a democratic candidate for the 
presidency, that the clerk of the republican house of representatives 
was openly quoted as saying that the influential paper, controlled 
by him, would either support Douglas or Seward, thus making him- 
self, apparently, an unpleasant connecting link between them. 

" With these facts before me, and impressing upon me the con- 
viction that the nomination of Judge Douglas could not be made 
with any hope of safety to the democratic party, what was I to do ? 
I will tell you what I did do, and I am afraid it is not what I ought 
to have done. Yielding to your preferences, I voted seven times 
for Judge Douglas, although my judgment told me that my votes 
were worse than useless, as they gave him an appearance of strength 
in the convention which I felt he had not in the democratic party. 
If this was an error it was your fault. 

" I then looked round to throw my vote where, at least, it would 
not mislead anybody. I saw a statesman of national fame and 
reputation, who had led his regiment to victory at Buena Yista, a 
democrat with whom I disagreed in some things, but with whom I 



IN THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 



could act in most. Loving his country first, his section next, but 
just to all — so that through his endeavors in the senate of the 
United States, Massachusetts obtained from the general government 
her just dues, deferred for forty years, of hundreds of thousands of 
dollars, a feat which none of her agents had ever been able to accom- 
plish. Besides, his friends were not pressing his name before the 
convention, so that he was not a partisan in the personal strife the^e 
going on. I thought such a man deserved, at least, the poor com- 
pliment of a vote from Massachusetts, and therefore I threw my vote 
for Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi ; and I claim, at least, that that 
vote was guided by intelligence. 

" Through a series of fifty-seven ballotings, the voting did not 
materially change. Afterward, almost by common consent, an 
adjournment was carried, and we are to go to Baltimore, on the 
18th of June next, to finish our work." 

General Butler went to Baltimore. All possibility of uniting the 
party was there prevented by the immovable resolve of the friends 
of Mr. Douglas to force his nomination. The convention was again 
divided, and General Butler went out with the delegates who had 
a determination equally fixed to defeat the nomination of Mr. Doug- 
las. The Douglas men nominated their chief for the presidency. 
They selected, as a candidate for the second office, Herschell John- 
son, of Georgia, an avowed disunionist, and an open advocate of 
the slave trade, who, at a public meeting in industrial Philadelphia, 
had permitted himself to say, that he thought " it was the best plan 
for capital to own its labor." The retiring body nominated for the 
presidency, Mr. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, and Mr. Lane, of Ore- 
gon, for the vice-presidency. These candidates received from Gen- 
eral Butler an energetic, an unwavering support — the only kind of 
support he ever gave to anything. 

Let us see how the four parties stood in the contest of that year. 

The Cincinnati platform of 1856 said: Let the people in each 
territory decide, when they form a constitution, whether they win 
come into the Union as a slave state or as a free state. 

But the delay in the admission of Kansas, gave intense interest 
to the question, whether slavery could exist in a territory before its 
admission. 

This was the issue in 1860. 

The republican platform said : No, it can not exist. Freedom is 



56 



IN THE CHARLESTON CONTENTION. 



the normal condition of all territory. Slavery can exist only by local 
law. There is no authority anywhere competent to legalize slavery 
in a territory of the United States. The Supreme Court can not 
do it. Congress can not do it. The territorial legislature can not 
do it. 

The Douglas platform said : We do not know whether slavery 
can exist in a territory or not. There is a difference of opinion 
among us upon the subject. The Supreme Court must decide, and 
its decision shall be final and binding. 

The Breckinridge platform said: Slavery lawfully exists in a 
territory the moment a slave-owner enters it with his slaves. The 
United States is bound to maintain his right to hold slaves in a ter- 
ritory. But when the people of the territory frame a state consti- 
tution, they are to decide whether to enter the Union as a slave or 
as a free state. If as a slave state, they are to be admitted without 
question. If as a free state, the slave owners must retire or emanci- 
pate. 

The Bell and Everett party, declining to construct a platform, 
expressed no opinion upon the question at issue. 

Thus, of the four parties in the field, two only had the courage to 
look the state of things in the face, and to avow a positive convic- 
tion, namely, the republicans and the Breckinridge men. These 
two, alone, made platforms upon which an honest voter could intel- 
ligently stand. The other parties shirked the issue, and meant to 
shirk it. The most pitiable spectacle ever afforded in the politics 
of the United States, was the stump wrigglings of Mr. Douglas du- 
ring the campaign, when he taxed all his great ingenuity to seem to 
say something that should win votes in one section, without 
losing votes in the other. Tragical as the end was to him, all 
men felt that his disappointment was just, though they would have 
gladly seen him recover from the shock, take the bitter lesson to 
heart, and join with his old allies in saving the country. 

Before leaving Baltimore, the leaders of the Breckinridge party 
came to an explicit understanding upon two important points. 

First, the northern men received from Mr. Breckinridge and his 
southern supporters, not merely the strongest possible declarations 
of devotion to the Union and the Constitution, but a particular dis- 
avowal and repudiation of the cry then heard all over the South, 
that in case of the success of the republican party, the South would 



IN THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 



57 



secede. There is no doubt in the minds of the well-informed, that 
Mr. Breckinridge was sincere in these professions, and it is known 
that he adhered to the Union, in his heart, down to the time when 
war became evidently inevitable. There is reason, too, to believe 
that he has since bitterly regretted having abandoned the cause of 
his country. 

. Secondly, the Breckinridge leaders at Baltimore arranged their 
programme of future operations. They were aware of the certainty 
of their defeat. In all probability, the republicans would come into 
power. That party (as the Breckinridge democrats supposed) be- 
ing unused to govern, and inheriting immense and unexampled 
difficulties, would break down, would quarrel among themselves, 
would become ridiculous or offensive, and so prepare the way for 
the triumphant return of the democracy to power in 1865. Mr. 
Douglas, too, they thought, would destroy himself, as a political 
power, by having wantonly broken up his party. The democrats, 
then, would adhere to their young and popular candidate, and elect 
him ; if not in 1864, then in 1868. 

Having concluded these arrangements, they separated, to meet in 
Washington after the election, and renew the compact, or else to 
change it to meet any unexpected issue of the campaign. 

On his return to Lowell, General Butler found himself the most 
unpopular man in Massachusetts. Not that Massachusetts approved 
the course or the character of Mr. Douglas. Not that Massachu- 
setts was incapable of appreciating a bold and honest man, who 
stood in opposition to her cherished sentiments. It was because 
she saw one of her public men acting in conjunction with the party 
which seemed to her identified with that which threatened a dis- 
ruption to the country if it should be fairly beaten in an election. 
The platform of that party was profoundly odious to her. It ap- 
peared to her, not merely erroneous, but immoral and monstrous, 
and she could not but feel that the northern supporters of it were 
guilty of a kind of subserviency that bordered upon baseness. She 
did not understand the series of events which would have compelled 
Mr. Douglas, if he had been elected, to go to unimagined lengths 
in quieting the apprehensions of the South. She could not, in that 
time of intense excitement, pause to consider, that if General But- 
ler's course was wrong, it was, at least, disinterested and unequivocal. 

He was hooted in the streets of Lowell, and a public meeting, at 



53 



IN THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 



which he was to give an account of his stewardship, was broken up 
by a mob. 

A second meeting was called. General Butler then obtained a 
hearing, and justified his course in a speech of extraordinary force 
and cogency. He characterized the Douglas ticket as " two-faced," 
designed to win both sections, by deceiving both. " Hurrah for 
Johnson! he goes for intervention. Hurrah for Douglas ! he.goesfor 
non-intervention unless the Supreme Court tells him to go the other 
way. Hurrah for Johnson ! he goes against popular sovereignty. 
Hurrah for Douglas! he goes for popular sovereignty if the Su- 
preme Court will let him! Hurrah for Johnson! he is for disun- 
ion ! Hurrah for Douglas ! he is for the Union." 

He met the charge brought against Mr. Breckinridge of sym- 
pathy with southern disunionists. " In a speech, but a day or two 
since at Frankfort, in the presence of his life-long friends and po- 
litical opponents, who could have gainsayed the declaration if it 
were not true, Mr. Breckinridge proudly said :— 4 I am an Ameri- 
can and a Kentuckian, who never did an act nor cherished a thought 
that was not full of devotion to the constitution and the Union.' 
Proud words, proudly spoken, and incapable of contradiction. Yet 
we, who support this gallant and conservative leader, are called dis- 
unionists, and charged with being untrue to democracy. By whom 
is this charge made ? By Pierre Soule, an avowed disunionist, in 
Louisiana ; by John Forsyth, and the ' Atlanta Confederacy,' in 
Georgia, which maintains the duty of the South to leave the Union 
if Lincoln is elected ; and yet these same men are the foremost of 
the southern supporters of Douglas ; by Gaulding, of Georgia, who 
is now stumping the state for Douglas, making the same speech 
that he made in the convention at Baltimore, where he argued that 
non-intervention meant that congress had no power to prevent the 
exportation of negroes from Africa, and that the slave trade was 
the true popular sovereignty in full expansion. 

" Would you believe it, fellow-citizens, this speech was ap- 
plauded in the Douglas convention, and that too, by a delegate from 
Massachusetts, ay, and from Middlesex county. 

" When I left that convention, I declared that I would no longer 
sit where the African slave trade, made piracy and felony by the 
laws of my country, was openly advocated and applauded. Yet 
such, at the South, are the supporters of Douglas." 



MASSACHUSETTS READY. 



59 



General Butler was the Breckinridge candidate for the governor- 
ship of Massachusetts. He had been a candidate for the same 
office a few years before, and had received the full support of his 
party, about 50,000 votes. On this occasion only 6,000 of his 
fellow-citizens cast their votes for him ; the whole number of voters 
being more than 170,000. 



CHAPTER HI. 

MASSACHUSETTS READY. 

Perhaps the commonest mistake made in commenting upon 
human actions, is to overrate the understanding, and underrate the 
moral worth of the actor. We natter ourselves that we are very 
great and very bad beings ; the humiliating truth seems to be, that 
we are rather good and extremely little. Mr. Dickens has a char- 
acter in one of his novels, who was fond of giving out that he was 
born in a ditch, and struggled up from that lowly estate to the po- 
sition of a man whose check was good for any number of thousands 
of pounds ; but it came out at last, that he was born of " poor but 
respectable parents," who had given him the rudiments of educa- 
tion in the most ordinary and common-place way. The blustering 
fool could not face the homely, creditable truth of his origin, and 
so invented the nattering lie, that he was the castaway offspring of 
a stroller. A vanity of this kind is common to the race. We do 
not, as a general thing, purposely deceive ourselves, but it appears 
to be universally taken for granted, that man is a tremendous crea- 
ture, capable of seeing the end from the beginning, and accustomed 
o form plans which contemplate and cause the actual issue. This 
lelusion, I suppose, is nourished, by our constantly viewing the re- 
sults of human ingenuity in vast accumulation. We omit to con- 
sider, that it took all the lifetime of man to build the Great Eastern, 
and that a new suit of Sunday clothes is the result of the severe 
cogitation, and laboriously gathered knowledge of all the ingenious 
tailors that ever lived, to say Dothing of the inventive weavers, cur- 
riers, and shoemakers. 
3* 



550 



MASSACHUSETTS READY. 



Hence, when a great thing has occurred, like this rebellion of the 
slave power against the power which alone could protect it, we are 
apt to imagine that it was all deliberately and deeply planned before- 
nand. The final history of the war, when it comes to be written, 
many years hence, will probably disclose that there was not much 
actual planning. The event was of the nature of a conflagration. 
There had been, indeed, for thirty years, a most diligent collection ■ 
of combustible matter. Every oratorial demagogue had wildly 
tossed his bundle of painted sticks upon the heap, and such men as 
Calhoun had burrowed through the mass, and inserted some solid- 
looking timbers of false doctrine ; and the necessities of despotism 
had built a wall around it, so that the fire-apparatus of outside civi- 
lization could not be brought to bear. In such circumstances, there 
is no great need of plan, when mere destruction is the object. A 
few long heads, like John Siidell, with the aid of a few madmen in 
Charleston, were competent to apply the requisite number of 
matches, and blow upon the -ncipient flames. It will probably ap- 
pear, that those who have since beet most conspicuous in control- 
ling the movement, were men who hung back from inaugurating it ; 
men who would have preferred to ~emain in the Union, and who 
were as much " carried away" by the rush of events, as the planters 
of North Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana, are known to have 
been. 

In December, 1860, Mr. Lincoln having been elected, and con- 
gress met, General Butler went to Washington, according to the 
agreement at Baltimore, in June, to confer with democratic lead- 
ers upon the future course of the party. South Carolina had gone 
through the form of seceding from the Union, and her three com- 
missioners were at the capital, to present to the president the ordi- 
nance of secession, and negotiate the terms of separation. Regard- 
ing themselves in the light of ambassadors, and expecting a long 
negotiation, they had taken a house, which served as the head- 
quarters of the malcontents. Excitement and apprehension per- 
vaded all circles. General Butler, in visiting his southern friends, 
found that most of them considered secession a fact accomplished, 
nothing remaining but to arrange the details. Mr. Breckinridge, 
however, still steadfast to his pledges, indignant, sorrowful, was 
using his influence to bring about a convention of the border states, 
which should stand between the two hostile bodies, and compel 



MASSACHUSETTS HEADY. 



61 



both *o make the concessions supposed to be necessary for the 
preservation of the Union. By day and night, he strove to stem 
the torrent of disaffection, and bring the men of the South to reason. 
He strove in vain. The movement which he endeavored to effect 
was defeated by Yfrginians, particularly by Mason and Hunter. 
Finding his plan impossible, he went about Washington, pale and 
naggard, the picture of despair, and sought relief, it is said, where 
dfcspairing southern men are too apt to seek it, in the whisky 
bottle. 

" What does all this mean ?" asked General Butler, of an old 
southern democrat, a few hours after his arrival in Washington. 

" It means simply what it appears to mean. The Union is dead. 
The experiment is finished. The attempt of two communities, hav- 
ing no interest in common, abhorring one another, to make believe 
that they are one nation, has ceased for ever. We shall establish a 
soimd, homogeneous government, with no discordant elements. 
We shall have room for our northern friends. Come with us." 

" Have you counted the cost ? Do you really think you can break 
up this Union ? Do you think so yourself ?" 

"I do." 

" You are prepared, then, for civil war? You mean to bring this 
thing to the issue of arms ?" 

" Oh, there will be no war. The North won't fight." 
" The North will fight." 
"The North won't fight." 
"The North wiU fight," 

" The North cant fight. We have friends enough at the North 
to prevent it." 

" You have friends at the North as long as you remain true to the 
constitution. But let me tell you, that the moment it is seen that 
you mean to break up the country, the North is a unit against you. 
I can answer, at least, for Massachusetts. She is good for ten 
thousand men to march, at once, against armed secession." 

" Massachusetts is not such a fool. If your state should send ton 
thousand men to preserve the Union against southern secession, she 
will have to fight twice ten thousand of her own citizens at home 
who will oppose the policy." 

" No, sir ; when we come from Massachusetts we shall not leave 
a single traitor behind, unless he is hanging on a tree." 



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"Well, we shall, see." 

" You will see. I know something of the North, and a good deal 
about New England, where I was born and have lived forty-two 
years. We are pretty quiet there now because we don't believe 
that you mean to carry out your threats. We have heard the same 
story at every election these twenty years. Our people don't yet 
believe you are in earnest. But let me tell you this: As sure as you 
attempt to break up this Union, the North will resist the attempt 
to its last man and its last dollar. You are as certain to fail as that 
there is a God in Heaven. One thing you may do : you may ruin 
the southern states, and extinguish your institution of slavery. 
From the moment the first gun is fired upon the American flag, 
your slaves will not be worth five years' purchase. But as to break- 
ing up the country, it can not be done. God and nature, and the 
blood of your fathers and mine have made it one ; and one country 
it must remain." 

And so the war of words went on. The general visited his old 
acquaintances, the South Carolina commissioners, and with them he 
had similar conversations ; the substance of all being this : 

Secessionists: "The North won't fight." 

General Butler : " The North will fight." 

Secessionists : " If the North fights, its laborers will starve and 
overturn the government." 

General Butler : " If the South fights, there is an end of slavery." 

Secessionists : " Do you mean to say that you yourself would figbt 
in such a cause ?" 

General Butler : " I would ; and, by the grace of God, I will." 

The general sat at the table, once more, of Jefferson Davis, for 
whom he had voted in the Charleston convention. Mr. Davis, at 
that time, appeared still to wish for a compromise and the preserva* 
tion of the Union. But he is a politician. He gave in to the sen* 
timent, that he owed allegiance, first, to the state of Mississippi ; 
secondly, to the United States ; which is the same as saying that he 
owed no allegiance to the United States at all. So, if a majority 
of the legislature of Mississippi should pronounce for secession, he 
was bound to abandon that which, for fifty years, he had been 
proud to call his " country." 

In times like those, every man of originating mind has his scheme. 
If in the multitude of counselors there were safety, no country had 



MASSACHUSETTS READY. 



63 



been safer than this country was in December, 1860, when Mr. Bu- 
chanan was assailed and confounded with advice from all quarters, 
near and remote, from friends and foes. General Butler, too, had 
an idea. As a leading member of the party in power, he was en- 
titled to be listened to, and he was listened to. Mr. Black, the 
legal adviser of the government, had given it as his opinion, that 
the proceedings of South Carolina were legally definable as a "riot," 
which the force of the United States could not be lawfully used in 
suppressing. 

General Butler said to the attorney-general : — " You say that the 
government can not use its army and navy to coerce South Carolina 
in South Carolina. Yery well. I do not agree with you ; but let 
the proposition be granted. Now, secession is either a right, or it 
is treason. If it is a right, the sooner we know it the better. 
If it is treason, then the presenting of the ordinance of seces- 
sion is an overt act of treason. These men are coming to the 
White House to present the ordinance to the president. Admit 
them. Let them present the ordinance. Let the president say to 
them : — ' Gentlemen, you go hence in the custody of a marshal of 
the United States, as prisoners of state, charged with treason 
against your country.' Summon a grand jury, here in Washing- 
ton. Indict the commissioners. If any of your officers are back- 
ward in acting, you have the appointing power ; replace them with 
men who feel as men should, at a time like this. Try the commis- 
sioners before the Supreme Court, with all the imposing forms and 
stately ceremonial which marked the trial of Aaron Burr. I have 
some reputation at home as a criminal lawyer, and will stay here 
and help the district attorney through the trial without fee or re- 
ward. If they are convicted, execute the sentence. If they are 
acquitted, you will have done something toward leaving a clear 
path for the incoming administration. Time will have been gained ; 
but the great advantage will be, that both sides will pause to watch 
this high and dignified proceeding ; the passions of men will cool ; 
the great points at issue will become clear to all parties ; the mind 
of the country will be active while passion and prejudice are 
allayed. Meanwhile, if you can not use your army and navy in 
Charleston harbor, you can certainly employ them in keeping order 
here." 

This was General Butler's contribution to the grand sum total of 



o*4 



MASSACHUSETTS READY. 



advice with which the administration was favored. Mr. Black 
seemed inclined to recommend the measure. Mr. Buchanan was of 
opinion, that it would cause a fearful agitation, and probably in- 
flame the South to the point of beginning hostilities forthwith. Be- 
sides, these men claimed to be ambassadors ; and though we could 
not admit the claim, still they had voluntarily placed themselves in 
our power, and seemed to have a kind of right to be, at least, warn- 
ed away, before we could honorably treat them as criminals or ene- 
mies. In vain General Butler urg^d that his object was simply to 
get their position defined by a competent tribunal; to ascertain 
whether they were, in reality, ambassadors or traitors. His scheme 
was that of a bold and steadfast patriot, prepared to go all lengths 
for his country. It could not but be rejected by Mr. Buchanan. 

General Butler frankly told the commissioners the advice he had 
given. 

" Why, you would'nt hang us, would you ?" said Mr. Orr. 
" Oh, no," replied the General ; " not unless you were found 
guilty." 

Then came the electric news of Major Anderson's " change of 
base" from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter; one of those trivial 
events which generally occur at times like those to decide the ques- 
tion of peace or war. The future historian will probably tell us, 
that there was never a moment after that event when a peaceful 
solution of the controversy was possible. He will probably show 
that it was the skillful use of that incident, at a critical moment, 
which enabled the secessionists of Georgia, frustrated till then, to 
commit that great state to the support of South Carolina ; and 
Georgia is the empire state of the cotton South, whose defection in- 
volved that of all the cotton states, as if by a law of nature. 

The president of the United States had allowed himself to prom- 
ise the South Carolina co m missioners that no military movement 
should occur in Charleston harbor during the negotiation at Wash- 
ington. They promptly demanded the return of Major Anderson 
to Fort Moultrie. Floyd supported their demand, Mr. Buchanan 
consented. Then the commissioners, finding the president so pliant 
demanded the total withdrawal of the troops from South Carolina, 
and Floyd supported them in that modest demand also, While 
the president stood hesitating upon the brink of this new infamy, 
the enormous frauds in Floyd's department came to light, and hi* 



MASSACHUSETTS READY. t>5 

influence was at an end. The question of withdrawal being pro- 
posed to the cabinet, it was negatived, and the virtuous Floyd re- 
lieved his colleagues by resigning. Mr. Holt succeeded him ; the 
government stiffened ; the commissioners went home ; and Genera» 
Butler, certain now that war was impending, prepared to depart. 

He had one last, long interview with the southern leaders, at 
which the whole subject was gone over. For three hours he rea- 
soned with them, demonstrating the folly of their course, and warn- 
ing them of final and disastrous failure. The conversation was 
friendly, though warm and earnest on both sides. Again he was 
invited to join them, and was offered a share in their enterprise, and 
a place in that " sound and homogeneous government" which they 
meant to establish. He left them no room to doubt that he 
took sides with his country, and that all he had, and all he was, 
should be freely risked in that country's cause. Late at night they 
separated to know one another no more except as mortal foes. 

The next morning, General Butler went to Senator Wilson, of 
Massachusetts, an old acquaintance, though long a political oppo- 
nent, and told him that the southern leaders meant war, and urged 
him to join in advising the governor of their state to prepare the 
militia of Massachusetts for taking the field. 

At that time, and for some time longer, the southern men were 
divided among themselves respecting the best mode of beginning 
hostilities. The bolder spirits were for seizing Washington, pre- 
venting the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, and placing Breckinridge, 
if he would consent, or some other popular man if he would not, in 
the presidential mansion,who should issue a proclamation to the 
whole country, and endeavor to rally to his support a sufficient 
number of northern democrats to distract and paralyze the loyal 
states. That more prudent counsels prevailed was not from any 
sense of the turpitude of such treason, but from a conviction that if 
anything could rouse the North to armed resistance, it would be 
the seizure of the capital. Nothing short of that, thought the se- 
cessionists, would induce a money-making, pusillanimous people to 
leave their shops and their counting-houses, to save their country 
from being broken to pieces and brought to naught. The dream 
of these traitors was to destroy their country without fighting ; and 
so the scheme of a coup aVetat was discarded. But General Butler 
left Washington believing that the bolder course was the one which 



66 



MASSACHUSETTS READY. 



would be adopted. He believed this the more readily, because it 
was the course which he would have advised, had he, too, been a 
traitor. One thing, however, he considered absolutely certain: 
there was going to be a war between Loyalty and Treason ; between 
the Slave Power and the Power which had so long protected and 
"ostered it. 

He found the North anxious, but still incredulous. He went to 
Governor Andrew, and gave him a full relation of what he had 
heard and seen at Washington, and advised him to get the militia 
of the state in readiness to move at a day's notice. He suggested 
that all the men should be quietly withdrawn from the militia force 
who were either unable or unwilling to leave the state for the de- 
fense of the capital, and their places supplied with men who could 
and would. The governor, though he could scarcely yet believe 
that war was impending, adopted the suggestion. About one-half 
the men resigned their places in the militia; the vacancies were 
quickly filled ; and many of the companies, during the winter months, 
drilled every evening in the week, except Sundays. General Butler 
further advised that two thousand overcoats be made, as the men 
were already provided with nearly every requisite for marching, ex- 
cept those indispensable garments, which could not be extemporized. 
To this suggestion there was sturdy opposition, since it involved 
the expenditure of twenty thousand dollars, and that for an exigency 
which Massachusetts did not believe was likely to occur. One gen- 
tleman, high in office, said that General Butler made the proposal 
in the interest of the moths of Boston, which alone would get any 
good of the overcoats. Others insinuated that he only wanted a 
good contract for the Middlesex Woolen Mills, in which he was a 
large shareholder. The worthy and patriotic governor, however, 
strongly recommended the measure, and the overcoats were begun. 
The last stitches in the last hundred of them were performed while 
the men stood drawn up on the common waiting to strap them to 
their knapsacks before getting into the cars for Washington. 

Having thus assisted in preparing Massachusetts to march, Gene- 
ral Butler resumed his practice at the bar, vibrating between Boston 
and Lowell as of old, not without much inward chafing at the hu- 
miliating spectacle which the country presented during those dreary, 
shameful months. One incident cheered the gloom. One word was 
uttered at Washington which spoke the heart of the country. One 



MASSACHUSETTS EEADY. 



67 



man in the cabinet felt as patriots feel when the flag of th^ir coun- 
try is threatened with dishonor. One order was given which did 
not disgrace the government from which it issued. " If any one 

ATTEMPTS TO HAUL DOWN THE AMEEICAN ELAG SHOOT HIM ON THE 

spot!" "When I read it," wrote General Butler to General Dix' 
long after, "my heart bounded with joy. It was the first .bold 
stroke in favor of the Union under the past administration." He 
had the pleasure of sending to General Dix, from New Orleans, 
the identical flag which was the object of the order, and the con- 
federate flag which was hoisted in its place; as well as of recom- 
mending for promotion the sailor, David Ritchie, who contrived to 
snatch both flags from the cutter when traitors abandoned and burnt 
her as Captain Farragut's fleet drew near. 

The fifteenth of April arrived. Fort Sumter had fallen. The 
president's proclamation calling for troops was issued. In the morn- 
ing came a telegram to Governor Andrew from Senator Wilson, 
asking that twenty companies of Massachusetts militia be instantly 
dispatched to defend the seat of government. A few hours after, 
the formal requisition arrived from the secretary of war calling for 
two full regiments. At quarter before five that afternoon, General 
Butler was in court at Boston trying a cause. To him came Colonel 
Edward F. Jones, of the Sixth regiment, bearing an order from 
Governor Andrew, directing him to muster his command forthwith 
in Boston common, in readiness to proceed to Washington. This 
regiment was one of General Butler's brigade, its headquarters 
being Lowell, twenty-five miles distant, and the companies scattered 
over forty miles of country. The general endorsed the order, and 
at five Colonel Jones was on the Lowell train. There was a good 
deal of swift riding done that night in the region round about 
Lowell; and at eleven o'clock on the day following, there was 
Colonel Jones with his regiment on Boston common. Not less 
prompt were the Third and Eighth regiments, for they began to 
arrive in Boston as early as nine, each company welcomed at the 
depot by applauding thousands. The Sixth regiment, it was deter- 
mined, should go first, and the governor deemed it best to strengthen 
it with two additional companies. "It was nine o'clock, on the 
evening of the 16th," reports Adjutant-General Schouler, "before 
your excellency decided to attach the commands of Captains Samp- 
won and Dike to the Sixth regiment. A messenger was dispatched 



68 



MASSACHUSETTS READY. 



to Stoneham, with orders for Captain Dike. He reported to me at 
eight o'clock the next morning, that he found Captain Dike at his 
house in Stoneham, at two o'clock in the morning, and placed your 
excellency's orders in his hands ; that he read them, and said : 1 Tell 
the adjutant-general that I shall be at the state house with my full 
company by eleven o'clock to-day.' True to his word, he reported 
at the time, and that afternoon, attached to the Sixth, the company 
left for Washington. Two days afterward, on the 19th of April, 
during that gallant march through Baltimore, which is no w a matter 
of history, Captain Dike was shot down while leading his company 
through the mob. Several of his command were killed and 
wounded, and he received a wound in the leg, which will render 
him a cripple for life." 

The general, too, was going. During the night following the 
15th of April, he had been at work with Colonel Jones getting the 
Sixth together. On the morning of the 16th, he was in the cars, as 
usual, going to Boston, and with him rode Mr. James G. Carney, 
of Lowell, president of the Bank of Redemption, in Boston. 

" The governor will want money," said the general. " Can not 
the Bank of Redemption offer a temporary loan of fifty thousand 
dollars to help off the troops ?" 

It can, and shall, was the reply, in substance, of the president ; 
and in the course of the morning, a note offering the loan was in 
the governor's hands. 

General Butler went not to' court that morning. As yet, no 
brigadier had been ordered into service, but there was one brigadier 
who was on fire to serve ; one who, from the first summons, had 
been resolved to go, and to stay to the end of the fight, whether he 
went as private or as lieutenant-general. Farewell the learned plea, 
and the big fees that swell the lawyers' bank account ! Farewell 
the spirit-stirring speech, the solemn bench, and all the pomp and 
circumstance of glorious law! General Butler's occupation was 
about to be changed. He telegraphed to Mr. Wilson, asking him 
to remind Mr. Cameron, that a brigade required a brigadier ; and 
back from Washington came an order calling for a brigade of four 
full regiments, to be commanded by a brigadier-general. 

That point gained, the next was to induce Governor Andrew to 
select the particular brigadier whom General Butler had in his 
mind when he dispatched the telegram to Mr. Wilson. There 



MASSACHUSETTS READY. 



69 



were two whose commissions were of older date than his own ; 
General Adams and General Pierce ; the former sick, the latter de- 
' siring the appointment. General Pierce had the advantage of being 
a political ally of the governor. On the other hand, General But- 
ler had suggested the measures which enabled the troops to take 
the field, had got the loan of fifty thousand dollars, had procured 
the order for a brigadier. He was, moreover, Benjamin F. Butler, 
a gentleman not unknown in Boston, though long veiled from the 
general view by a set of obstinately held unpopular political opin- 
ions. These considerations, aided, perhaps, by a little wire-pulling, 
prevailed; and in the morning of the 17th, at ten o'clock, he re- 
ceived the order to take command of the troops. 

All that day he worked as few men can work. There were a 
thousand things to do ; but there were a thousand willing hearts 
and hands to help. The Sixth regiment was off in the afternoon, 
addressed before it moved by Governor Andrew and General But- 
ler. Two regiments were embarked on board a steamer for Fort- 
ress Monroe, then defended by two companies of regular artillery — 
a tempting prize for the rebels. Late at night, the General went 
home to bid farewell to his family, and prepare for his final de- 
parture. The next morning, back again to Boston, accompanied 
by his brother, Colonel Andrew Jackson Butler, who chanced to 
be on a visit to his ancient home, after eleven years' residence in 
California; where, with Broderick and Hooker, he had already 
done battle against the slave power, the lamented Broderick having 
died in his arms. He served now as a volunteer aid to the General, 
and rendered good service on the eventful march. At Boston, 
General Butler stopped at his accustomed barber-shop. While he 
was under the artist's hands, a soldier of the departed Sixth regi 
ment came in sorrowful, begging to be excused from duty ; saying 
that he had left his wife and three children crying. 

" I am not the man for you to come to, sir," said the General, 
" for I have just done the same," and straightway sent for a police- 
man to arrest him as a deserter. 

A hurried visit to the steamer bound for Fortress Monroe. All 
was in readiness there. Then to the Eighth regiment, in the Com- 
mon, which he was to conduct to Washington, by way of Balti- 
more ; no intimation of the impending catastrophe to the Sixth 
having yet been received. The Eighth marched to the cars, and 



10 



MASSACHUSETTS READY. 



rolled away from the depot, followed by the benedictions of assem- 
bled Boston ; saluted at every station on the way by excited mul- 
titudes. At Springfield, where there was a brief delay to procure* 
from the armory the means of repairing muskets, the regiment was 
joined by a valuable company, under Captain Henry S. Briggs. 
Thence, to New York. The Broadway march of the regiment ; their 
breakfast at the Metropolitan and Astor ; their push through the 
crowd to Jersey City ; the tumultuous welcome in New Jersey ; 
the continuous roar of cheers across the state ; the arrival at Phila- 
delphia in the afternoon of the memorable nineteenth of April, who 
can have forgotten ? 

Fearful news met the general and the regiment at the depot. 
The Sixth regiment, in its march through Baltimore that afternoon, 
had been attacked by the mob, and there had been a conflict, in 
which men on both sides had fallen ! So much was fact ; but, as 
inevitably happens at such a time, the news came with appalling 
exaggerations, which could not be corrected ; for soon the tele- 
graph ceased working, the last report being that the bridges at the 
Maryland end of the railroad were burning, and that Washington, 
threatened with a hostile army, was isolated and defenseless. 
Never, since the days when " General Benjamin Franklin" led a 
little army of Philadelphians against the Indians after Braddock's 
defeat, the Indians ravaging and scalping within sixty miles of the 
city, and expected soon to appear on the banks of the Schuylkill, had 
Philadelphia been so deeply moved with mingled anger and apprehen- 
sion. The first blood shed in a war sends a thrill of rage and horroi 
through all hearts, and this blood shed in Baltimore streets, was 
that of the countrymen, the neighbors, the relatives of these newly 
arrived troops. A thousand wild rumors filled the ah', and nothing- 
was too terrible to be believed. He was the great man of the 
group, who had the most incredible story to tell ; and each listener 
went his way to relate the tale with additions derived from his own 
frenzied imagination. 

General Butler's orders directed him to march to Washington by 
way of Baltimore. That having become impossible, the day being 
far spent, his men fatigued, and the New York Seventh coming, he 
marched his regiment to the vacant Girard House for a night's rest, 
where hospitable, generous Philadelphia gave them bountiful en- 
tertainment The regiment slept the sleep that tired soldiers know. 



MASSACHUSETTS READY. 



71 



For General Butler there was neither sleep nor rest that night, 
nor for his fraternal aid-de-camp. There was telegraphing to the 
governor of Massachusetts ; there were consultations with Commo- 
dore Dupont, commandant of the Navy Yard; there were inter- 
views with Mr. Felton, president of the Philadelphia and Baltimore 
railroad, a son of Massachusetts, full of j>atriotic zeal, and prompt 
with needful advice and help ; there was poring over maps and 
gazetteers. Meanwhile, Colonel A. J. Butler was out in the streets, 
buying pickaxes, shovels, tinware, provisions, and all that was 
necessary to enable the troops to take the field, to subsist on army 
rations, to repair bridges and railroads, and to throw up breast- 
works. All Maryland was supposed to be in arms ; but the gen- 
eral was going through Maryland. 

Before the evening was far advanced, he had determined upon a 
plan of operations, and summoned his officers to make them ac- 
quainted with it — not to shun responsibility by asking their opin- 
ion, nor to waste precious time in discussion. They found upon 
his table thirteen revolvers. He explained his design, pointed out 
its probable and its possible dangers, and said that, as some might 
censure it as rash and reckless, he was resolved to take the sole 
responsibility himself. Taking up one of the revolvers, he invited 
every officer who was willing to accompany him to signify it by 
accepting a pistol. The pistols were all instantly appropriated. 
The officers departed, and the general then, in great haste, and 
amid ceaseless interruptions, sketched a memorandum of his plan, 
to be sent to the governor of Massachusetts after his departure, 
that his friends might know, if he should be swallowed up in the 
maelstrom of secession, what he had intended to do. Many sen- 
tences of this paper betray the circumstances in which they were 
written. 

"My proposition is to join with Colonel Lefferts of the Seventh 
regiment of New York. I propose to take the fifteen hundred 
troops to Annapolis, arriving there to-morrow about four o'clock, 
and occupy the capital of Maryland, and thus call the state to ac- 
count for the death of Massachusetts men, my friends and neigh- 
bors. If Colonel Lefferts thinks it more in accordance with the 
tenor of his instructions to wait rather than go through Baltimore, I 
still propose to march with this regiment. I propose to occupy the 
town, and hold it open as a means of communication. I have then 



72 



MASSACHUSETTS BEADY. 



but to advance by a forced march of thirty miles to reach the capi- 
tal, in accordance with the orders I at first received, but which sub- 
sequent events in my judgment vary in their execution, believing 
from the telegraphs that there will be others in great numbers to 
aid me. Being accompanied by officers of more experience, who 
will be able to direct the affair, I think it will be accomplished. 
We have no light batteries ; I have therefore telegraphed to Gover- 
nor Andrew to have the Boston Light Battery put on shipboard at 
once, to-night, to help me in marching on Washington. In pursu- 
ance of this plan, I have detailed Captains Devereux and Briggs, 
with their commands, to hold the boat at Havre de Grace. 

" Eleven, a. m. Colonel Lefferts has refused to march with me, 
I go alone at three o'clock, p. m., to execute this imperfectly writ- 
ten plan. If I succeed, success will justify me. If I fail, purity of 
intention will excuse want of judgment or rashness." 

The plan was a little changed in the morning, when the rumor 
prevailed that the ferry-boat at Havre de Grace had been seized 
and barricaded by a large force of rebels. The two companies were 
not sent forward. It was determined that the regiment should go 
in a body, seize the boat and use it for transporting the troops 
to Annapolis. 

" I may have to sink or burn your boat," said the general to Mr. 
Felton. 

" Do so," replied the president, and immediately wrote an order 
authorizing its destruction, if necessary. 

It had been the design of General Butler, as we have seen, to 
leave Philadelphia in the morning train ; but he delayed his depart- 
ure in the hope that Colonel Lefferts might be induced to share in 
the expedition. The Seventh had arrived at sunrise, and General 
Butler made known his plan to Colonel Lefferts, and invited his 
co-operation. That officer, suddenly intrusted with the lives (but 
the honor also) of nearly a thousand of the flower of the young 
men of New York, was overburdened with a sense of responsi- 
bility, and felt it to be his duty to consult his officers. The con- 
sultation was long, and, I believe, not harmonious, and the result 
was, that the Seventh embarked in the afternoon in a steamboat 
at Philadelphia, with the design of going to Washington by the 
Potomac river, leaving to the men of Massachusetts the honor and 
the danger of opening a path through Maryland. It is impossible 



MASSACHUSETTS READY. 



73 



for a New Yorker, looking at it in the light of subsequent events, not 
to regret, and keenly regret, the refusal of officers of the favorite 
New York regiment to join General Butler in his bold and wise 
movement. But they had not the light of subsequent events to 
aid them in their deliberations, and they, doubtless, thought that 
their first duty was to hasten to the protection of Washington, and 
avoid the rjsk of detention by the way. It happened on this occa- 
sion, as in so many others, that the bold course was also the pru- 
dent and successful one. The Seventh was obliged, after all, to 
take General Butler's road to Washington. 

At eleven in the morning of the twentieth of April, the Eighth 
Massachusetts regiment moved slowly away from the depot in Broad 
street toward Havre de Grace, where the Susquehannah river emp- 
ties into the Chesapeake Bay — forty miles from Philadelphia, 
sixty-four rr -r^ Annapolis. General Butler went through each car 
explaining the plan of attack, and giving the requisite orders. His 
design was to halt the train one mile from Havre de Grace, 
advance his two best drilled companies as skirmishers, follow 
quickly with the regiment, rush upon the barricades and carry 
them at the point of the bayonet, pour headlong into the ferry- 
boat, drive out the rebels, get up steam and start for Annapolis. 

Having assigned to each company its place in the line, and giv- 
en all due explanation to each captain, the general took a seat and 
instantly fell asleep. 

And now, the bustle being over, upon all those worthy men fell 
that seriousness, that solemnity, which comes to those who value 
their lives, and whose lives are valuable to others far away, but who 
are about, for the first time, to incur mortal peril for a cause which 
they feel to be greater and dearer than life. Goethe tells us that 
valor can neither be learned nor forgotten. I do not believe it. 
Certainly, the first peril does, in some degree, appall the firmest 
heart, especially when that peril is quietly approached on the easy 
seat of a railway car during a two hours' ride. Scarcely a word 
was spoken. Many of the men sat erect, grasping their muskets 
firmly, and looking anxiously out of the windows. 

One man blenched, and one only. The general was startled from 
his sleep by the cry of, " Man overboard !" The train was stopped. 
A soldier was seen running across the fields as though pursued by a 
mad dog. Mad Panic had seized him, and he had jumped from a 



74 



MASSACHUSETTS READ'S. 



car, incurring ten times the danger from which he strove to escape 
The general started a group of country people in pursuit, offering 
them the lawful thirty dollars if they brought the deserter to Havre 
de Grace in time. The train moved again ; the incident broke the 
sp-41, and the cars were filled with laughter. The man was brought 
in. His sergeant's stripe was torn from his arm, and he was glad 
to compound his punishment by serving the regiment in the capacity 
of a menial. 

At the appointed place, the train was stopped, the regiment 
was formed, and marched toward the ferry-boat, skirmishers in 
advance. It mustered thirteen officers and seven hundred and 
eleven men.* 

* EIGHTH EEGIMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS INFANTS* 



FIELD AND STAFF. 



Colonel .- Timothy Munroe, Lynn. 

Afterwards Edward W. Hinks, Lynn. 

Lieutenant- Colonel Andrew Elwell, Gloucester. 

Major Ben. Perley Poore, Newburyport. 

Adjutant George Creasey, Newburyport 

Quartermaster E. Alfred'Ingalls, Lynn. 

Paymaster Eoland G. Usher, Lynn. 

Surgeon Bowman B. Breed, Lynn. 

Assistant-Surgeon Warren Tapley, Lynn. 

Chaplain Gilbert Haven, Maiden. 

Sergeant-Major John Goodwin, jr., Marblehead. 

Quartermaster- Sergeant. ..Horace E. Monroe, Lynn. 

Drum-Major Samuel Eoads, Marblehead. 

Total, Field and Staff 18 



COMPANIES AND COMMANDERS. 

A, — 2fewburyport Captain Albert W. Bartlett, Newburyport 80 

£,— Marblehead Captain Ei chard Philips, Marblehead 5P 

C,— Marblehead Captain Knott V. Martin, Marblehead 63 

Z>, — Lynn. Captain George T. NewhalL, Lynn 69 

E, — Beverly , Captain Francis E. Porter, Beverly 72 

F, — Lynn Captain James Hudson, jr., Lynn 89 

<?, — Gloucester Captain Addison Center, Gloucester 66 

Ei— Marblehead Captain Francis Boardman, Marblehead 52 

— Salem Captain Arthur F. Devereux, Salem T2 

K-Pittsjield \ Captain Hemy S - BriggS ' mts&em \ 77 

' J I Captain Henry H. Eichardson, Pittsfield S 

Total, Officers and Men TU 

of Adjutant-Om&ral Schouler, for 1861. 



ANNAPOLIS. 



CHAPTER IV. 

ANNAPOLIS. 

It was a false alarm. There was not an armed enemy at Havre 
de Grace. The ferry-boat Maryland lay at her moorings in the 
peaceful possession of her crew ; and nothing remained but to get 
up steam, put on board a supply of coal, water and provisions, 
embark the troops, and start for Annapolis. 

Whether the captain and crew were loyal or treasonable — whether 
they were likely to steer the boat to Annapolis or to Baltimore, or 
run her ashore on some traitorous coast, were questions much dis- 
cussed among officers and men. The captain professed the most 
ardent loyalty, and General Butler was more inclined to trust him 
than some of his officers were. There were men on board, however, 
who knew the way to Annapolis, and were abundantly capable of 
navigating any craft on any sea. It was resolved, therefore, to 
permit the captain to command the steamer, but to keep a sharp 
lookout ahead, and an unobserved scrutiny of the engine-room. 
Upon the first indication of treachery, captain and engineers should 
find themselves in an open boat upon the Chesapeake, or stowed 
away in the hold, their places supplied with seafaring Marbleheaders. 
Never before, I presume, had such a variously skilled body of men 
gone to war as the Massachusetts Eighth. It was not merely that 
all trades and professions had their representatives among them, 
but some of the companies had almost a majority of college-bred 
men. Major Winthrop did not so much exaggerate when he said, 
that if the word were given, " Poets to the front !" or " Painters 
present arms !" or " Sculptors charge bayonets !" a baker's dozen 
out of every company would respond. Navigating a steamboat 
was the simplest of all tasks to many of them. 

At six in the evening they were off, packed as close as negroes 
in the steerage of a slave ship. Darkness closed in upon them, and 
the men lay down to sleep, each with his musket in his hands. The 
general, in walking from one part of the boat to another, stumbled 
over and trod upon many a growling sleeper. He was too anxious 
4 



ANNAPOLIS. 



upon the still unsettled point of the captain's fidelity to sleep; so he 
went prowling about among the prostrate men, exchanging notes 
with those who had an eye upon the compass, and with those who 
were observing the movements of the engineers. There were mo- 
ments when suspicion was strong in some minds ; but captain and 
engineers did their duty, and at midnight the boat was off the 
ancient city of Annapolis. 

They had, naturally enough, expected to come upon a town 
wrapped in midnight slumber. There was no telegraphic or other 
communication with the North ; how could Annapolis, then, know 
that they were coming? It certainly could not; yet the whole 
town was evidently awake and astir. Rockets shot up into the 
sky. Swiftly moving lights were seen on shore, and all the houses 
in sight were lighted up. The buildings of the Naval Academy 
were lighted. There was every appearance of a town in extreme 
commotion. It had been General Butler's intention to land quietly 
while the city slept, and astonish the dozing inhabitants in the 
morning with a brilliantly executed reveille. Noting these signs of 
disturbance, he cast anchor, and determined to delay his landing 
till daylight. 

Colonel Andrew Jackson Butler volunteered to go on shore 
alone, and endeavor to ascertain the cause of the commotion. He 
was almost the only man in the party who wore plain clothes. 
The general consenting, a boat was brought round to the gang- 
way, and Colonel Butler stepped into it. As he did so, he handed 
his revolver to a friend, saying, that he had no intention of fighting 
a town full of people, and if he was taken prisoner, he preferred 
that his pistol should fight, during the war, on the Union side. The 
brother in command assured him, that if any harm came to him in 
Annapolis, it would be extremely bad for Annapolis. The gallant 
colonel settled himself to his work, and glided away into the dark- 
ness. 

The sound of oars was again heard, and a boat was descried ap- 
proaching the steamer. A voice from the boat said : 
" What steamer is that ?" 

The steamer was as silent as though it were filled with dead 
men. 

" What steamer is that ?" repeated the voice. 
No answer. The boat seemed to be making off. 



ANNAPOLIS. 



77 



44 Come on board," thundered General Butler. 
No reply from the boat. 

" Gome on board, or I'll fire into you," said the general. 

The boat approached, and came alongside. It was rowed by 
four men, and in the stern sat an officer in the uniform of a lieuten- 
ant of the United States navy. The ofiicer stepped on board, and 
W8S conducted by General Butler to his cabin, where, the door 
being closed, a curious colloquy ensued. 
' " Who are you ?" asked the lieutenant. 

" Who are you said the general. 

He replied that he was Lieutenant Matthews, attached to the 
Naval Academy, and was sent by Captain Blake, commandant of 
the post, and chief of the Naval Academy, who directed him to say 
that they must not land. He had, also, an order from Governor 
Hicks to the same effect. The United States quartermaster, too, 
had requested him to add from Lieutenant General Scott, that there 
were no means of transportation at Annapolis. 

General Butler was still uncommunicative. Both gentlemen 
were in a distrustful state of mind. 

The truth was that Captain Blake had been, for forty-eight hours, 
in momentary expectation of an irruption of " plug uglies" from 
Baltimore, either by sea or land. He was surrounded by a popula- 
tion stolidly hostile to the United States. The school-ship Consti- 
tution, which lay at the academy wharf, was aground, and weakly 
manned. He had her guns shotted, and was prepared to fight her 
to the last man ; but she was an alluring prize to traitors, and he 
was in dread of an overpowering force. " Large parties of seces- 
sionists," as the officers of the ship afterward testified, " were round 
the ship every day, noting her assailable points. The militia of the 
county were drilled in sight of the ship in the day time ; during the 
night signals were exchanged along the banks and across the river, 
but the character of the preparation, and the danger to the town in 
case of an attack, as one of the batteries of the ship was pointed 
directly upon it, deterred them from carrying out their plans. Dur- 
ing this time the Constitution had a crew of about twenty-five men, 
and seventy-six of the youngest class of midshipmen, on board. 
The ship drawing more water than there was on the bar, the seces- 
sionists thought she would be in their power whenever they would 
be in sufficient force to take her." In these circumstances, Captain 



58 



ANNAPOLIS. 



Blake, a native of Massachusetts, who had grown gray in his coun- 
try's service, as loyal and steadfast a heart as ever beat, was tor- 
tured with anxiety for the safety of the trust which his country 
had committed to him. Upon seeing the steamer, he had conclud- 
ed that here, at last, were the Baltimore ruffians, come to seize his 
ship, and lay waste the academy. Secessionists in the town were 
prepared to sympathize, if not to aid in the fell business. All 
Annapolis, for one reason or another, was in an agony of desire to 
know who and what these portentous midnight voyagers were; 
Captain Blake, his ship all ready to open fire, had sent the lieuten- 
ant to make certain that the new-comers were enemies, before begin- 
ning the congenial work of blowing them out of the water. 

General Butler and the lieutenant continued for some time to 
question one another, without either of them arriving at a satis, 
factory conclusion as to the loyalty of the other. The general, at 
length, announced his name, and declared his intention of marching 
by way of Annapolis to the relief of Washington. The lieutenant 
informed him that the rails were torn up, the cars removed, and 
the people unanimous against the marching of any more troops 
over the soil of Maryland. The general intimated that the men of 
his command could dispense with rails, cars, and the consent of the 
people. They were bound to the city of Washington, and expected 
to make their port. Meanwhile, he would send an officer with him 
on shore, to confer with the governor of the state, and the authori 
ties of the city. 

Captain P. Haggerty, aid-de-camp, was dispatched upon this 
errand. He was conveyed to the town, where he was soon con- 
ducted to the presence of the governor and the mayor, to whom he 
gave the requisite explanations, and declared General Butler's intention 
to land. Those dignitaries finding it necessary to confer together, 
Captain Haggerty was shown into an adjoining room, where he 
was discovered an hour or two later, fast asleep on a lounge. Lieu- 
tenant Matthews was charged by the governor with two short 
notes to General Butler, one from himself, and another from the 
aforesaid quartermaster. The document signed by the governor, 
read as follows : 

"I would most earnestly advise, that you do not land your 
men at Annapolis. The excitement is very great, and I think 
it prudent that you should take your men elsewhere. I ba^e 



ANNAPOLIS. 



79 



telegraphed to the secretary of war against your landing your men 
here." 

This was addressed to the " Commander of the Volunteer troops 
on Board the Steamer." The quartermaster, left Captain Morris J. 
Miller, wrote thus : 

"Having been intrusted by General Scott with the arragnements 
for transporting your regiments hence to Washington, and it being 
impracticable to procure cars, I recommend, that the troops re- 
main on board the steamer until further orders can be received from 
General Scott." 

This appears to have been a mere freak of the captain's imagina- 
tion, since no troops were expected at Annapolis by General Scott. 

Captain Haggerty returned on board "the steamer," and the 
notes were delivered to the general commanding. 

What had befallen Colonel Butler, meanwhile ? Upon leaving 
the steamer, he rowed toward the most prominent object in view, and 
soon found himself alongside of what proved to be a wharf of the 
Naval Academy. He had no sooner fastened his boat, and stepped 
ashore, than he was seized by a sentinel, who asked him what he 
wanted. 

" I want to see the commander of the post." 

To Captain Blake he was, accordingly, taken. Colonel Butler is 
a tall, fully developed, imposing man, devoid of the slightest resem 
blance to the ideal " Plug Ugly." Captain Blake, venerable with 
years and faithful service on many seas, in many lands, was not a 
person likely to be mistaken for a rebel. Yet these two gentlemen 
eyed one another with intense distrust. The navy had not then 
been sifted of all its traitors ; and upon the mind of Captain Blake, 
the apprehension of violent men from Baltimore had been working 
for painful days and nights. He received the stranger with reticent 
civility, and invited him to be seated. Probing questions were 
asked by both, eliciting vague replies, or none. These two men were 
fankees, and each was resolved that the other should declare him- 
self first. After long fencing and "beating about the bush," Col- 
onel Butler expressed himself thus : 

" Captain Blake, we may as well end this now as at any other 
time. They are Yankee troops on board that boat, and if I don't 
get back pretty soon, they will open fire upon you." 

The worthy Captain drew a long breath of relief. Full explana- 



« 



80 ANNAPOLIS. 

tions on both sides followed, and Captain Blake said he would visit 
General Butler at daybreak. Colonel Butler returned on board the 
Maryland. 

The general was soon ready with replies to the notes of Governor 
Hicks and Captain Miller. 

To the governor : " I had the honor to receive your note by 
the hands of Lieutenant Matthews of the United States Naval 
School at Annapolis. I am sorry that your excellency should 
advise against my landing here. I am not provisioned for a long 
voyage. Finding the ordinary means of communication cut off by 
the burning of railroad bridges by a mob, I have been obliged to 
make this detour, and hope that your excellency will see, from the 
very necessity of the case, that there is no cause of excitement in 
the mind of any good citizen because of our being driven here by 
an extraordinary casualty. I should, at once, obey, however, an 
order from the secretary of war." 

To Captain Miller : " I am grieved to hear that it is impractica- 
ble for you to procure cars for the carriage of myself and command 
to Washington, D. C. Cars are not indispensable to our progress. 
I am not instructed that you were to arrange for the transporting 
of my command ; if so, you would surely have been instructed as to 
our destination. We are accustomed to much longer journeys on 
foot in pursuance of our ordinary avocations. I can see no objec- 
tion, however, to our remaining where we are until such time as 
orders may be received from General Scott. But without further 
explanation from yourself, or greater inconveniences than you sug- 
gest, I see no reason why I should make such delay. Hoping for 
the opportunity of an immediate personal interview, I remain, etc." 

Captain Blake came off to the steamer at dawn of day, and soon 
found himself at home among his countrymen. 

" Can you help me off with the Constitution ? Will your orders 
permit you ?" 

" I have got no orders," replied the general. " I am making war 
on my own hook. But we can't be wrong in saving the Constitu- 
tion. That is, certainly, what we came to do." 

How the regiment now went to work with a will to save the 
Constitution ; how the Maryland moved up along side, and put on 
board the Salem Zouaves for a guard, and a hundred Marbleheaders 
for sailors ; how they tugged, and tramped, and lightened, and 



ANNAPOLIS. 



SI 



heaved, and tugged, and tugged again ; how groups of sulk^ jecesh 
stood scowling around, muttering execrations ; how the old frigate 
was started from her bed of mud at length, amid such cheers as 
Annapolis had never heard before, and has not heard since Cap- 
tain Blake bursting into tears of joy after the long strain upon his 
nerves ; these things have been told, and have not been forgotten. 

But the ship was not yet safe, though she was moving slowly 
toward safety. General Butler had now been positively assured 
that the captain of his ferry-boat was a traitor at heart, and would 
like nothing better than to run both steamer and frigate on a mud 
bank. He doubted the statement, which indeed was false. The 
man was half paralyzed with terror, and was thinking of nothing 
but how to get safely out of the hands of these terrible men. 
Nevertheless, the general deemed it best to make a remark or two 
by way of fortifying his virtuous resolutions, and neutralizing any 
' hints he may have received from people on the shore. The engine- 
room he knew was conducted in the interest of the United States, 
for he had given it in charge to four of his own soldiers. He had 
no man in his command who happened to be personally acquainted 
with the shallows of the river Severn. 

" Captain," said he, "have you faith in my word?" 

" Yes," said the captain. 

" I am told that you mean to run us aground. I think not. If 
you do, as God lives, and you live, I'll blow your brains out." 

The poor captain, upon hearing these words, evinced symptoms 
of terror so remarkable, as to convince General Butler that if any 
mishap befell the vessels, it would not be owing to any disaffection 
on the part of the gentleman in the pilot-house. 

All seemed to be going well. The general dozed in his chair. 
He woke to find the Maryland fast in the mud. Believing the cap- 
tain's protestations, and the navigation being really difficult, he did 
not molest his brains, which were already sufficiently discomposed, 
but ordere ^ him into confinement. The frigate was still afloat, and 
was, soon after, towed to a safe distance by a tug. The Eighth 
Massachusetts could boast that it had rendered an important ser- 
vice. But there the regiment was upon a bank of mud ; provisions 
nearly consumed ; water casks dry ; and the sun doing its duty. 
There was nothing to be done but wait for the rising of the tide, 
and, in the mean time, to replenish the water casks from the shore. 



32 



A1STNAP0LIS. 



The men were tired and hungry, black with coal dust, and tor- 
mented with thirst, but still cheerful, and even merry ; and in the 
twilight of the Sunday evening, the strains of religious hymns rose 
from groups who, on the Sunday before, sang them in the choirs of 
village churches at home. The officers, as they champed their bis- 
cuit, and cut their pork with pocket knives, laughingly alluded to 
the superb breakfast given them on the morning of their departure 
from Philadelphia by Par an Stephens at the Continental. Mr. 
Stephens, a son of Massachusetts, had employed all the resources 
of his house in giving his countrymen a parting meal. The sudden 
plunge from luxury brought to the perfection of one of the fine 
arts, to army rations, scant in quantity, ill-cooked, and a short 
allowance of warm water, was the constant theme of jocular com- 
parison on board the Maryland. It was a well-worn joke, to call 
for delicate and ludicrously impossible dishes, which were remem- 
Dered as figuring in the Continental's bill of fare ; the demand being 
gravely answered by the allowance of a biscuit, an inch of salt 
pork, and a tin cup half full of water. 

General Butler improved the opportunity of going on shore. He 
met Governor Hicks and the mayor of Annapolis, who again urged 
him not to think of landing. All Maryland, they said, was on the 
point of rushing to arms ; the railroad was impassable, and guarded 
by armed men ; terrible things could not fail to happen, if the 
troops attempted to reach Washington. 

"I must land," said the general; "my men are hungry. 1 
could not even leave without getting a supply of provisions." 

They declared that no one in Annapolis would sell him anything. 
To which the general replied, that he hoped better things of the 
people of Annapolis ; but, in any case, a regiment of hungry soldiers 
were not limited to the single method of procuring supplies usually 
practiced in time of peace. There were modes of getting food other 
than the simple plan of purchase. Go to Washington he must and 
should, with or without the assistance of the people of Annapolis. 
The governor still refused his consent, and, the next day, put his 
refusal into writing; "protesting against the movement, which, in 
the excited condition of the people of this state, I can not but con- 
sider an unwise step on the part of the government. But," he 
added, " I must earnestly urge upon you, that there shall be no 
halt made by the troops in this city." No halt ? Seven hundred 



ANNAPOLIS. 



83 



ai)d twenty-four famishing men, with a march of thirty miles before 
them, were expected to pass by a city abounding in provisions, and 
not halt ! Great is Buncombe ! 

Another night was passed on board the Maryland. The dawn 
of Monday morning brought with it a strange apparition — a 
steamer approaching from the sea, crammed with troops, their arms 
soon glittering in the rays of the rising sun. Who could they be ? 
They cheered the stars and stripes waving from the mast of the 
rescued Constitution ; so they were not enemies, at least. 

The steamer proved to be the Boston, with the New York 
Seventh on board, thirty-six hours from Philadelphia. They had 
steamed toward the mouth of the Potomac, but, on speaking the 
light-ships, were repeatedly told that the secessionists had stationed 
batteries of artillery on the banks of the river, for the purpose of 
preventing the ascent of troops. There was no truth in the story, 
but it seemed probable enough at that mad time ; and, therefore, 
Colonel Lefferts, after the usual consultation, deemed it most pru- 
dent to change his course, and try General Butler's road to the 
capital ; the regiment by no means relishing the change. The two 
regiments exchanged vigorous volleys of cheers, and preparations 
were soon made for getting the Maryland afloat. 

General Butler, counting now upon Colonel Lefferts's hearty co- 
operation, issued to his own troops a cheering order of the day : — 

" At five o'clock a. m. the troops will be called by companies to be drilled 
in the manual of arms, especially in loading at will and firing by file in the 
nse of the bayonet, and these specialties will be observed in all subsequent 
drills in the manual ; such drills will continue until 7 o'clock ; then all the 
arms may be stacked upon the upper deck, great care being taken to instruct 
the men as to the mode of stacking their arms, so that a firm stack, not easily 
overturned, shall be made. Being obliged to drill at times with the weapons 
loaded, great damage may be done by the overturning of the stack and the dis- 
charge of apiece. This is important. Indeed, an accident has already oc- 
curred in the regiment from this cause, and although slight in its consequences, 
yet it warns us to increased diligence in this regard. 

"The purpose which could only be hinted at in the orders of yesterday 
nas been accomplished. The frigate Constitution has lain for a long time 
at this port substantially at the mercy of the armed mob which sometimes 
paralyzes the otherwise loyal state of Maryland. Deeds of daring, success- 
ful contests, and glorious victories had rendered Old Ironsides so conspicuous 
: n the naval history of the country, that she was fitlv chosen as the school 
4* 



84 



ANNAPOLIS. 



iD which to train tne future officers of the navy to like heroic acts. It wa9 
given to Massachusetts and Essex County first to man her ; it was reserved 
to Massachusetts to have the honor to retain her for the service of the Union 
and the laws. This is a sufficient triumph of right — a sufficient triumph 
for us. By this the blood of our friends shed by the Baltimore mob is in so 
far avenged. The Eighth regiment may hereafter cheer lustily upon all 
proper occasions, but never without orders. The old ' Constitution.' by 
their efforts, aided untiringly by the United States officers having her in 
charge, is now safely 'possessed, occupied, and enjoyed' by the government 
of the United States, and is safe from all her enemies. 

" We have been joined by the Seventh regiment of New York, and together 
we propose peaceably, quietly, and civilly, unless opposed by some mob or 
other disorderly persons, to march to Washington in obedience to the re- 
quisition of the President of the United States ; and if opposed, we shall 
march steadily forward. My next order, I hardly know how to express. 
I cannot assume that any of the citizen soldiery of Massachusetts or New 
York could, under any circumstances whatever, commit any outrages upon 
private property in a loyal and friendly state; but fearing that some im- 
proper person may have, by stealth, introduced himself among us, I deem 
it proper to state that any unauthorized interference with private property 
will be most signally punished, and full reparation therefor be made to the 
injured party, to the full extent of my power and ability. In so doing I but 
carry out the orders of the War Department. I should have done so with- 
out those orders. 

" Colonel Monroe will cause these orders to be read at the head of each com- 
pany before we march. Colonel Lefferts's command not having been originally 
included in this order, he will be furnished with a copy for his instruction . 

Tke Maryland could not be floated. The men threw overboard 
coal and crates, and all heavy articles that could be spared. The 
Boston tugged her strongest. The Eighth ran in masses from side 
to side, and from end to end. After many hours of strenuous exer- 
tion, the men suffering extremely from thirst and hunger, the gene- 
ral himself not tasting a drop of liquid for twelve hours, the attempt 
was given up, and it was resolved that the Boston should land the 
Seventh at the grounds of the Naval Academy, and then convey to 
the same place the Massachusetts Eighth. 

Desirous not to seem wanting in courtesy to a sovereign state, 
General Butler now sent to Governor Hicks, a formal written 
request for permission to land. The answer being delayed and his 
men almost fainting for water, he then dispatched a respectful note 
announcing his intention to land forthwith. It was to these notea 



ANNAPOLIS. 



85 



that Governor Hicks sent the reply, already quoted, protesting 
against the landing, and urging that no halt be made at Annapolis. 

In the course of the afternoon, both regiments were safely landed 
at the academy grounds, and the Seventh hastened to share all they 
dad of provender and drink with their new friends. The men of 
the two regiments fraternized immediately and completely; nothing 
occurred, during the laborious days and nights that followed, to 
disturb, for an instant, the perfect harmony that reigned between 
them. The only contest was, which should do most to help, and 
cheer, and relieve the other. 

I regret to be obliged to state that this pleasant state of affairs did 
not extend at all times, to the powers controlling the two regiments. 
An obstacle, little expected, now arose in General Butler's path. 

From the moment when the Seventh had entered the grounds of 
the naval school, systematic attempts appear to have been made to 
alarm Colonel Lefferts for the safety of his command. Messengers 
came in with reports that the academy was surrounded with rebel 
troops ; and even the loyal middies could testify, that during that 
very day, a force of Maryland militia had been drilling in the town 
itself. True, this force consisted of only one company of infantry 
and one of cavalry ; but probably the exact truth was not known 
to Colonel Lefferts's informants. Certain it is, that he was made to 
believe that formidable bodies of armed men only waited the issue 
of the regiments from the gates of the walled inclosure in which 
they were, to give them battle, if, indeed, the inclosure itself was 
safe from attack. Accordingly he posted strong guards at the gates, 
and ordered that no soldier should be allowed to pass out. Nor 
were his apprehensions allayed when a Tribune reporter, who, ac- 
companied by two friends, had strolled all over the town unmolest- 
ed, brought back word that no enemy was in sight, and that the 
storekeepers of Annapolis were perfectly civil and willing to sell 
their goods to Union soldiers. Colonel Lefferts was assured that 
the hostile troops were purposely keeping out of sight, to fall upon 
the regiment where it could fight only at a fatal disadvantage. 

Consequently, he determined not to march with General Butler. 
He placed his refusal in writing, in the following words : — 

" Annapolis Academy, Monday Night, April 22d, 1861. 
44 General JB. F. Butlee, Commanding Massachusetts Volunteers. 

M Sir:— Uoon consultation with my officers, I do not deem it proper, under 



86 



A1TNAPOLIS. 



the circumstances, to co-operate in the proposed march by railroad, laying 
track as we go along — particularly in view of a large force hourly expected, 
and with so little ammunition as we possess. I must be governed by my 
officers in a matter of so much importance. I have directed this to be 
handed to you upon your return from the transport ship. 

" I am, sir, yours respectfully, Maeshall Leffebts." 

It was handed to the general on his return from the transport 
ship. He sought an interview with Colonel Lefferts, and endea- 
vored to change his resolve. Vain were arguments ; vain remon- 
strance ; vain the biting taunt. Colonel Lefferts still refused to go. 
General Butler then said he would go alone, he and his regiment, 
and proceeded forthwith to prepare for their departure. He in- 
stantly ordered two companies of the Massachusetts Eighth to 
march out of the walled grounds of the academy, and seize the rail- 
road, depot and storehouse. With the two companies, he marched 
himself to the depot, and took possession of it without opposition. 
At the storehouse, one man opposed them, the keeper in charge. 

" What is inside this building ?" asked the general. 

" Nothing," replied the man. 

" Give me the key." 

" I hav'nt got it." 

"Where is it?" 

"I don't know." 

" Boys, can you force those gates ?" 

The boys expressed an abundant willingness to try. 

"Try, then." 

They tried. The gates yielded, and flew open. 

A small, rusty, damaged locomotive was found to be the " noth- 
ing," which the building held. 

" Does any one here know anything about this machine ?" 

Charles Homans, a private of company E, eyed the engine for a 
moment, and said : 

" Our shop made that engine, general. I guess I can put her in 
order and run her." 

" Go to work, and do it." 

Charles Homans picked out a man or two to help, and began, at 
once, to obey the order. 

Leaving a strong guard, at the depot, the general viewed the 
track, and ascertained that the rails had, indeed, been torn up, and 



AXNAPOLIS. 



8'/ 



thrown aside, or carelessly hidden. Returning to the regiment, he 
ordered a muster of men accustomed to track-laying ; who, with the 
dawn of the next day, should begin to repair the road. 

At sunset that evening, the Seventh regiment, to the delight of a 
concourse of midshipmen and other spectators, performed a brilliant 
evening parade, to the music of a full band. 

Two members of this regiment (many more than two, but two 
especially), preferred the work that General Butler was doing, and 
implored him to give them an humble share in it. One of them 
was Schuyler Hamilton, grandson of one of the men whose names 
he bore, and great-grandson of the other ; since distinguished in 
the war, and now General Hamilton. The other was Theodore 
Winthrop. General Butler found a place on his staff for Schuyler 
Hamilton, who rendered services of the utmost value ; he was wise 
in counsel, valiant and prompt to execute. To Winthrop the 
general said : 

"Serve out your time in your regiment. Then come to me, 
wherever I am, and I will find something for you to do." 

Happily, a change came over the minds of the officers of the 
Seventh the next morning. As late as three o'clock at night, 
Colonel Lefferts was still resolved to remain at Annapolis ; for, at 
that hour, he sent off a messenger, in an open boat, for New York, 
bearing dispatches asking for reinforcements and supplies. He 
informed the messenger that he had certain information of the 
presence of four rebel regiments at the Junction, where the grand 
attack was to be made upon the passing troops. But when the day 
dawned, and the cheering sun rose, and it became clear that the 
Massachusetts men at the depot had not been massacred, and were 
certainly going to attempt the march, then the officers of the Seventh 
came into General Butler's scheme, and agreed to join their breth- 
ren of Massachusetts. From that time forward, there was no hang- 
ing back. Both regiments worked vigorously in concert — Win- 
throp foremost among the foremost, all ardor, energy and merri- 
ment. Campaigning was an old story to him, who had roamed 
the world over in quest of adventure ; and few men, of the thousands 
who were then rushing to the war, felt the greatness and the holi- 
ness of the cause as he felt it. Before leaving home, he had 
solemnly given Ms life to it, and, in so doing, tasW, for the first 
time, perhaps a joy that satisfied him. 



88 



ANNAPOLIS. 



tt would be unfair to censure Colonel Lefferts for his excessive 
prudence. He really believed the stories told him of the resistance 
he was to meet on the way. Granting that those tales were true, 
his course was, perhaps, correct. The general had one great advan- 
tage over him in the nature of his professional training. General 
Butler is one of the most vigorous and skillful cross-questioners in 
New England. In other words, he had spent twenty years of his 
life in detecting the true from the plausible ; in dragging up half- 
drowned Truth, by her dripping locks, from the bottom of her well. 
Such practice gives a man at last a kind of intuitive power of 
detecting falsehood ; he acquires a habit of balancing probabilities, 
he scents a lie from afar. Doubtless, he believed their march might 
be opposed at some favorable point ; but, probably, he had too a 
tolerable certainty that slow, indolent, divided Maryland, could not, 
or would not, on such short notice, assemble a force on the line of 
railroad, capable of stopping a Massachusetts regiment bound to 
Washington on a legitimate errand. He had had, at Havre de 
Grace, a striking instance of the difference between truth and ru- 
mor, and his whole life had been full of such experiences. Colonel 
Lefferts, as a New York merchant, had passed his life among 
people who generally speak the truth, and keep their word. He 
was unprepared to believe that a dozen people could come to him, 
all telling substantially the same story, many of them believing 
what they told, and yet all uttering falsehoods. 

Tuesday was a busy day of preparation for the march. Rails 
were hunted up and laid. Parties were pushed out in many direc- 
tions but found no armed enemies. Lieutenant-Colonel Hinks, with 
two companies of the Massachusetts Eighth, advanced along the 
railroad three miles and a half, without meeting the slightest 
appearance of opposition. Soldiers strolled about the town, and 
discovered that the grimmest secessionist was not unwilling to 
exchange such commodities as he had for coin of the United States. 
Negroes gave furtive signs of good will, and produced baskets of 
cakes for sale. Madame Rumor was extremely diligent; there 
were bodies of cavalry here, and batteries of artillery there, and 
gangs of Plug-Uglies coming from terrible Baltimore. The soldiers 
worked away, unmolested by anything more formidable than vague 
threats of coming vengeance. 

General Butler received and wrote divers brief epistles in the 



AlWAPOLIS. 



course of the day. Early in the morning he took the liberty of in- 
quiring of the master of transportation, whether the rails of the 
road had been taken up " for the purpose of hindering the transpor- 
tation of the United States militia under my charge to Washington. 
An immediate and explicit answer is desired." An immediate and 
explicit answer was returned, that the rails had been removed for 
the purpose mentioned ; a mob having threatened to destroy the 
road if any troops of the United States should pass over it to Wafch- 
ington. The master of transportation desired to know by what 
authority General Butler had taken possession of the property of 
the railroad company. The general replied : 

" I will answer your inquiry with the same explicitness that you 
did mine. My authority is the order of the government. My jus- 
tification, the necessity for transportation. Your reparation, the 
pledge of the faith of the government." 

He also informed the gentleman that a list of the property seized, 
and a receipt therefor, had been given to the person found in charge. 

A startling rumor prevailed in the morning that the negroes in 
the vicinity of Annapolis were about to rise against their masters, 
and do something in the St. Domingo style — as per general expec- 
tation. The commanding general thought it proper to address to 
Governor Hicks the letter which became rather famous in those days 

" I did myself the honor, in my communication of yesterday, 
wherein I asked permission to land on the soil of Maryland, to 
inform you that the portion of the militia under my command were 
aimed only against the disturbers of the peace of the state of Mary- 
land and of the United States. 

" I have understood within the last hour that some apprehension 
is entertained of an insurrection of the negro population of this 
neighborhood. I am anxious to convince all classes of persons that 
the forces under my command are not here in any way to interfere, 
or countenance an interference, with the laws of the state. I, there- 
fore, am ready to co-operate with your excellency in suppressing most 
promptly and efficiently any insurrection against the laws of the state 
of Maryland. I beg, therefore, that you announce publicly, that any 
portion of the forces under my command is at your excellency's 
disposal, to act immediately for the preservation of the peace of this 
immunity." 

The governor gave immediate publicity to this letter, and it is 



90 



ANNAPOLIS. 



said to have had a remarkable effect in quieting the apprehensions 
of the people. Many who had ned from their homes returned to 
them, and gave aid and comfort to the troops. The governor, 
however, was still in a protesting humor. His next communi- 
cation to the general was the following : 

" Having, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the constitu- 
tion of Maryland, summoned the legislature of the state to assemble 
on Friday, the 26th instant, and Annapolis being the place in. which, 
according to law, it must assemble ; and having been credibly in- 
formed that you have taken military possession of the Annapolis 
and Elk Ridge railroad, I deem it my duty to protest against this 
step ; because, without at present assigning any other reason, I am 
informed that such occupation of said road will prevent the mem- 
bers of the legislature from reaching this city." 

To which General Butler replied : 

" You are correctly informed that I have taken possession of the 
Annapolis and Elk Ridge railroad. It might have escaped your 
notice, but at the official meeting which was had, between your 
excellency and the mayor of Annapolis and the committee of the 
government and myself, as to the landing of my troops, it was ex- 
pressly stated, as the reason why I should not land, that my troops 
could not pass the railroad, because the company had taken up the 
rails, and they were private property. It is difficult to see how it 
can be, that if my troops could not pass over the railroad one way, 
the members of the legislature could pass the other way. I have 
taken possession for the purpose of preventing the execution of the 
threats of the mob, as officially represented to me by the master of 
transportation of the railroad in this city, ' that if my troops passed 
over the railroad, the railroad should be destroyed.' 

" If the government of the state had taken possession of the road 
in any emergency, I should have, long hesitated before entering upon 
it ; but as I had the honor to inform your excellency in regard to 
another insurrection against the laws of Maryland, I am here armed 
to maintain those laws, if your excellency desires, and the peace of 
the United States against ail disorderly persons whatsoever. I am 
endeavoring to save and not to destroy ; to obtain means of trans- 
portation, so that I can vacate the capital prior to the sitting of the 
legislature, and not be under the painful necessity of incumbering 
your beautiful city while the legislature is in session." 



ANNAPOLIS. 



91 



All was in readiness for the start before the men slept that night. 
The engine had been tried, and found sufficient. A few platform 
cars had been discovered. The general in command, issued the 
order for the march, in which he endeavored to provide for all 
probable events : 

" The detachment of the Eighth, under command of Lieutenant- 
Colonel Hinks, which has already pushed forward and occupied the 
railroad three and one-half miles, will remain at its advance until 
joined by two companies of the New York Seventh, which will 
take the train now in our possession, and push forward as far as the 
track is left uninjured by the mob. These companies will then leave 
the cars, and, throwing out proper skirmishers, carefully scour the 
country along the line of the road, while the working party of the 
Eighth is repairing the track ; taking care, however, not to advance 
so fast as not to be in reach of the main body, in case of an attack. 
The train of cars will return, and take up the advanced detachment 
of the Eighth now holding possession of the depot. These will 
again go forward as far as can be done with safety, on account of 
the state of the track, when they will leave the train, assist the 
party repairing it, and push forward as rapidly as possible, taking 
care that the track is put in order for the passage of the train. la- 
the mean time, the train will return to the depot, and taking on 
board such a portion of the baggage as may be proper, will again 
go forward. The remaining portions of the Massachusetts and New 
York regiments will put themselves on the march, and consolidate 
the two regiments as rapidly as possible." Minute directions fol- 
low respecting the supply of provisions, the halt of two hours in 
the middle of the day, the sacredness of private property, and the 
measures to be used, if the troops were attacked. 

Early the next morning, the troops were in motion. It was a 
bright, warm spring day, the sun gleaming along the line of bayo- 
nets, the groves vocal with birds, the air fragrant with blossoms. 
The engine driven by Charles Homans, — a soldier with fixed bayonet 
on each side of him, — came and went panting through the line of 
marching troops. As the sun climbed toward the zenith, the 
morning breeze died away, and the air in the deeper cuttings be- 
came suffocatingly warm. The working parties, more used to such 
a temperature, plied the sledge and the crowbar unflaggingly, but 
the daintier New Yorkers reeled under their heavy knapsacks,. 



92 



ASTKTAPOLIS. 



and were glad, at length, to leave them to the charge of Homans. 
With all their toil, the regiments could only advance at the rate of 
a mile an hour, for the farther they went, the more complete was 
the destruction of the road. Bridges had to be repaired, as well as 
rails replaced. A shower in the afternoon gave all parties a wel- 
come drenching, and left the atmosphere cool and bracing ; but 
when night closed in, and the moon rose, they were still many miles 
from the junction. 

" O Gottschalk !" exclaims Winthrop, " what a poetic night 
march we then began to play, with our heels and toes on the rail- 
road track !" 

" It was full-moonlight and the night inexpressibly sweet and 
serene. The air was cool, and vivified by the gust and shower of 
the afternoon. Fresh spring was in every breath. Our fellows had 
forgotten that this morning they were hot and disgusted. Every 
one hugged his rifle as if it were the arm of the Girl of his Heart, 
and stepped out gayly for the promenade. Tired or foot-sore men, 
or even lazy ones, could mount upon the two freight-cars we were 
using for artillery-wagons. There were stout arms enough to tow 
the whole. 

" It was an original kind of march. I suppose a battery of howit- 
zers never before found itself mounted upon cars, ready to open fire 
at once, and bang away into the offing with shrapnel or into the 
bushes with canister. Our line extended a half-mile along the track. 
It was beautiful to stand on the bank above a cutting and watch 
the files strike from the shadow of a wood into a broad flame of 
moonlight, every rifle sparkling up alert as it came forward. A 
beautiful sight to see the barrels writing themselves upon the dim- 
ness, each a silver flash. 

"By-and-by, 'Halt!' came, repeated along from the front, com- 
pany after company. ' Halt ! a rail gone.' 

" From this time on we were constantly interrupted. Not a half- 
mile passed without a rail up. Bonnell was always at the front lay- 
ing track, and I am proud to say that he accepted me as aid-de- 
camp. Other fellows, unknown to me in the dark, gave nearty 
help. The Seventh showed that it could do something else than 
drill. 

" At one spot, on a high embankment over standing water, the 
'•ail vvas gone, sunk probably. Here we tried our rails, brought 



ANNAPOLIS. 



93 



from the turn-out. They were too short. We supplemented with 
a length of plank from our stores. We rolled our cars carefV ty 
over. They passed safe. But Homans shook his head. He could 
not venture a locomotive on that frail stuff. So we lost the society 
of the 'J. H. Nicholson.' Next day the Massachusetts commander 
called for some one to dive in the pool for the lost rail. Plump into 
the water went a little wiry chap and grappled the rail. ' When I 
come up,' says the brave fellow afterward to me, i our officer out 
with a twenty-dollar gold piece and wanted me to take it. ' That 
a'n't what I come for,' says I. ' Take it,' says he, ' and share with 
the others.' 4 That a'n't what they come for,' says I. But I took 
a big cold,' the diver continued, c and I'm condemned hoarse yit,' — 
which was the fact. 

"Farther on we found a whole length of track torn up, on both 
sides, sleepers and all, and the same thing repeated with alternations 
of breaks of single rails. Our howitzer-ropes came into play to 
hoist and haul. We were not going to be stopped." 

In the afternoon of the day following, the Seventh marched by 
the White House, and saluted the President of the United States. 
Not an armed foe had been seen by them on the way. 

It had been General Butler's intention to accompany the troops 
to Washington ; but before they had started the steamer Baltic ar- 
rived, loaded with troops from New York, giving abundant em- 
ployment to the general and his extemporized staff. Before they 
had been disposed of, other vessels arrived, and, on the day fol- 
lowing, came an order from General Scott, directing General Butler 
to remain at Annapolis, hold the town and the road, and superin- 
tend the passage of the troops. Before the week ended, the " de- 
partment of Annapolis," embracing the country lying twenty miles 
on each side of the railroad, was created, and Brigadier-General 
Butler placed in command ; with ample powers, extending even to 
the suspension of habeas corpus, and the bombardment of Annapo- 
lis, if such extreme measures should be necessary for the mainte- 
nance of the supremacy of the United States. 

During the next ten days, General Butler's unequaled talent for 
the dispatch of business, and his unequaled powers of endurance, 
were taxed to the uttermost. Troops arrived, thousands in a day. 
The harbor was filled with transports. Every traveler from North 
or South was personally examined, and his passport indorsed by 



94 



ANNAPOLIS. 



the general in command. Spies were arrested. The legislature of 
Maryland was closely watched, and no secret was made of Genera 1 
Butler's intention to arrest the entire majority if an ordinance oi 
secession was passed. It was not known to that body, I presume, 
that one of their officers had consigned to General Butler's custody 
the Great Seal of the Common wealth, without which no act of theirs 
could acquire the validity of law. Such was the fact, however. 
In the total inexperience of commanding officers, every detail of the 
disembarkation, of the encampments, of the supply, and of the march? 
required the supervision of the general. From daylight until mid- 
night he labored, keeping chaos at bay. One night as the clock was 
striking twelve, when the general, after herculean toils, had cleared 
his office of the last bewildered applicant for advice or orders, and 
he was about to trudge wearily to bed, an anxious-looking corre- 
spondent of a newspaper came in. 

" General," said he, " where am I to sleep to-night ?" 

This was, really, too much. 

" Sir," said the tired commander of the Department of Annapolis 
" I have done to-day about everything that a man ever did in this 
world. But I am not going to turn chambermaid, by Jove !" 

And, so saying, he escaped from the room. 

"We need not linger at Annapolis. General Butler's services 
there were duly appreciated by the president, the lieutenant-gen- 
eral, Governor Andrew, and the country. One act alone of his 
elicited any sign of disapproval ; it was his offer of the troops of 
Massachusetts to the governor of Maryland, to aid in suppressing 
an insurrection of the slaves. It is proper that we should place on 
convenient record here his reasons for that step, with the letter of 
Governor Andrew, which called them forth. 

goveenob andeew to geneeal butleb. 

Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 
Executive Department, 
Council Chambee, Boston, April 25, 1861. 
Geneeal : I have received, through Mayor Ames, a dispatch transmitted 
from Perryville, detailing the proceedings at Annapolis from the time of 
your arrival off that port until the hour when Major Ames left you to re« 
turn to Philadelphia. I wish to repeat the assurance of mv entire satisfac- 
tion with the action you have taken, with a single exception. If I rightly 



ANNAPOLIS. 



understood the telegraphic dispatch, I think that your action in tendering 
to Governor Hicks the assistance of onr Massachusetts troops to suppress a 
threatened servile insurrection among the hostile people of Maryland was 
unnecessary. I hope that the fuller dispatches, which are on their way 
from you, may show reasons why I should modify my opinion concerning 
that particular instance ; but, in general, I think that the matter of servile 
insurrection among a community in arms against the Federal Union, is no 
longer to be regarded by our troops in a political, but solely in a military 
point of view, and is to be contemplated as one of the inherent weaknesses 
of the enemy, from the disastrous operations of which we are under no 
obligation of a military character to guard them, in order that they may be 
enabled to improve the security which our arms would afford, so as to 
prosecute with more energy their traitorous attacks upon the Federal gov- 
ernment and capital. The mode in which such outbreaks are to be con- 
sidered, should depend entirely upon the loyalty or disloyalty of the com- 
munity in which they occur, and in the vicinity of Annapolis, I can, on 
this occasion, perceive no reason of military policy, why a force summoned 
to the defense of the Federal government, at this moment of all others, 
should be offered to be diverted from its immediate duty, to help rebels, 
who stand with arms in their hands, obstructing its progress toward the 
city of Washington. I entertain no doubt that whenever we shall have an 
opportunity to interchange our views personally on this subject, we shall 
arrive at entire concordance of opinion. Yours faithfully, 

John A. Andeew. 

geneeal btjtleb to govebnoe a.ndeew. 

Depaetment of Annapolis, 
Head-qtjaetees, Annapolis, May 9, 1861. 
To His Excellency John A. Andeew, Governor and Commander-in-Chief . 

Sie : — I have delayed replying to your excellency's dispatch of the 25th 
April, in my other dispatches, because as it involved only disapprobation 
of an act done, couched in the kindest language, I supposed the interest of 
the country could not suffer in the delay ; and incessant labor up to the 
present moment, has prevented me giving full consideration to the topic. 
Temporary illness, which forbids bodily activity, gives me now a moment's 
pause. 

The telegraph, with more than usual accuracy, had rightly informed your 
excellency that I had offered the services of the Massachusetts troops under 
my command to aid the authorities of Maryland in suppressing a threatened 
slave insurrection. Fortunately for us, all the rumor of such an outbreak 
was without substantial foundation. Assuming, as your excellency does, 
«ii your dispatch, that I was carrying on military operations in an enemy's 



96 



ANNAPOLIS. 



country, when a war d Voutrance was to be waged, my act might be a mat- 
ter of discussion. And in that view, acting in the light of the Baltimore 
murders, and the apparent hostile position of Maryland, your excellenc j 
might, without mature reflection, have come to the conclusion of disappro- 
bation expressed in your dispatch. But the facts, especially as now aided 
by their results, will entirely justify my act, and reinstate me in your excel- 
lency's good opinion. 

True, I landed on the soil of Maryland against the formal protest of iba 
governor and of the corporate authorities of Annapolis, but without any 
armed opposition on their part, and expecting opposition only from insur- 
gents assembled in riotous contempt of the laws of the state. Before, by 
letter, and at the time of landing, by personal interview, I had informec 
Governor Hicks that soldiers of the Union, under my command, were 
armed only against the insurgents and disturbers of the peace of Marylan< 
and of the United States. I received from Governor Hicks assurances ol 
the loyalty of the state to the Union — assurances which subsequent events- 
have fully justified. The mayor of Annapolis also informed me that th< 
city authorities would in no wise oppose me, but that I was in great dan 
ger from the excited and riotous mobs of Baltimore pouring down upon 
me, and in numbers beyond the control of the police. I assured both the 
governor and the mayor that I had no fear of a Baltimore or other mob. 
and that, supported by the authorities of the state and city, I should 
repress all hostile demonstrations against the laws of Maryland and the 
United States, and that I would protect both myself and the city of Annap- 
olis from any disorderly persons whatsoever. On the morning following 
my landing I was informed that the city of Annapolis and environs were 
in danger from an insurrection of the slave population, in defiance of the 
laws of the state. What was I to do ? I had promised to put down a 
white mob and to preserve and enforce the laws against that. Ought I to 
allow a black one any preference in a breach of the laws ? I understood 
that I was armed against all infractions of the laws, whether by white or 
black, and upon that understanding I acted, certainly with promptness and 
efficiency. And your excellency's shadow of disapprobation, arising from 
a misunderstanding of the facts, has caused all the regret I have for that 
action. The question seemed to me to be neither military nor political, and 
was not to be so treated. It was simply a question of good faith and hon- 
esty of purpose. The benign effect of my course was instantly seen. The 
good but timid people of Annapolis who had fled from their houses at our 
approach, immediately returned'; business resumed its accustomed chan- 
nels ; quiet and order prevailed in the city ; confidence took the place of 
distrust, friendship of enmity, brotherly kindness of sectional hate, and I 
believe to-day there is no city in the Union more loyal than the city of 
Annapolis. I think, therefore, I may safely point to the results for m> r 



AXXAPOLIS. 



97 



justificatior. The vote of the neighboring comity of Washington, a few 
days since, for its delegate to the legislature, wherein 4,000 out of 5,000 
votes were thrown for a delegate favorable to the Union, is among the 
many happy fruits of firmness of purpose, efficiency of action, and integrity 
of mission. I believe, indeed, that it will not require a personal inter- 
change of views, as suggested in your dispatch, to bring our minds in 
accordance ; a simple statement of the facts will suffice. 

But I am to act hereafter, it may be, in an enemy's country, among a 
servile population, when the question may arise, as it has not yet arisen, as 
well in a moral and Christian, as in a political and military point of view, 
What shall I do ? Will your exceUency bear with me a moment while this 
question is discussed ? 

I appreciate fully your excellency's suggestion as to the inherent weak- 
ness of the rebels, arising from the preponderance of their servile popula- 
tion. The question, then, is, In what manner shall we take advantage of 
that weakness ? By allowing, and, of course, arming, that population to 
rise upon the defenseless women and children of the country, carrying 
rapine, arson and murder — all the horrors of San Domingo, a million times 
magnified — among those whom we hope to reunite with us as brethren, 
many of whom are already so, and all who are worth preserving, will be. 
when this horrible madness shall have passed away or be threshed out of 
them ? Would your excellency advise the troops under my command to 
make war in person upon the defenseless women and children of any part 
of the Union, accompanied with brutalities too horrible to be named? You 
will say, "God forbid!" If we may not do so in person, shall we arm 
others so to do, over whom we can have no restraint, exercise no control, 
and who. when once they have tasted blood, may turn the very arms we 
put in their hands against ourselves, as a part of the oppressing white race ? 
The reading of history so familiar to your excellency, will tell you the 
bitterest cause of complaint which our fathers had against Great Britain in 
the war of the Revolution, was the arming by the British ministry of the 
red man with the tomahawk and the scalping-knife against the women and 
children of the colonies, so that the phrase, " May we not use all the means 
which God and nature have put in our power to subjugate the colonies?" 
has passed into a legend of infamy against the leader of that ministry who 
used it in parliament. Shall history teach us in vain ? Could we justify 
ourselves to ourselves, although with arms in our hands, amid the savage 
wildness of camp and field, we may have blunted many of the finer moral 
sensibilities, in letting loose four millions of worse than savages upon the 
homes and hearths of the South? Can we be justified to the Christian 
community of Massachusetts ? Would such a course be consonant with the 
teachings of our holy religion ? I have a very decided opinion upon the 
subjects if anv one desires, as I know your excellency does not, this 



ANNAPOLIS. 



unhappy contest to be prosecnted m that manner, some instrument other 
than myself must be found to carry it on. I may not discuss the political 
bearings of this topic. When I went from under the shadow of my roof- 
tree, I left all politics behind me, to be resumed only when every part of 
the Union is loyal to the flag, and the potency of the government through 
the ballot-box is established. 

Passing the moral and Christian view, let us examine the subject as a 
military question. Is not that state already subjugated which requires the 
bayonets of those armed in opposition to its rulers, to preserve it from the 
horrors of a servile war ? As the least experienced of military men, I 
would have no doubt of the entire subjugation of a state brought to that 
condition. When, therefore — unless I am better advised — any community 
in the United States, who have met me in honorable warfare, or even in 
the prosecution of a rebellious war in an honorable manner, shall call upon 
me for protection against the nameless horrors of a servile insurrection, 
they shall have it, and from the moment that call is obeyed, I have no 
doubt we shall be friends and not enemies. 

The possibility that dishonorable means of defense are to be taken by 
the rebels against the government, 1 do not now contemplate. If, as has 
been done in a single instance, my men are to be attacked by poison, or as 
in another, stricken down by the assassin's knife, and thus murdered, the 
community using such weapons may be required to be taught that it holds 
within its own border a more potent means for deadly purposes and indis 
criminate slaughter than any which it can administer to us. 

Trusting that these views may meet your excellency's approval, I have 
the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

Benj. F. Butleb. 

We all remember how universal the expectation was, at the be 
ginning of the war, that the negroes would everywhere embrace 
the opportunity to rise upon their masters, and commit frightful 
outrages. That expectation grew out of our general ignorance of 
the character and feelings of the southern negro ; and none of us 
were so ignorant upon these points as hunker democrats. If they 
had some acquaintance with slaveholders, they knew nothing about 
slavery, because they would know nothing. It is a propensity of 
the human mind, to put away from itself unwelcome truths. 
American democrats, I repeat, know nothing of American slavery. 
It was pleasant and convenient for them to think, that Mr. Wen- 
dell Phillips, Mr. Garrison, Mrs. Stowe, and Mr. Sumner, were per- 
sons of a fanatical cast of character, whose calm and very moderate 



ANNAPOLIS , 



99 



exhibitions of slavery were totally beneath consideration — dis- 
torted, exaggerated, incredible. It was with the most sincere 
astonishment, that General Butler and his hunker staff discovered, 
when they stood face to face with slavery, and were obliged to ad- 
minister the law of it, and tried to do justice to the black man as 
well as to the white, that the worst delineations of slavery ever pre- 
sented to the public fell far short of the unimaginable truth.* They 
were ready to confess their ignorance of that of which they had 
been hearing and reading all their lives, and that this ' patriarchal 
institution,' for which some of them had pleaded or apologized, was 
simply the most hellish thing that ever was in this world. 

Nevertheless, there has never been the slightest danger of an in- 
surrection of the slaves. The real victim of slavery is the white 
man, not the black. Whatever little good there is in the system, 
the black man has had; while most of the evil has fallen to the 
white man's share. Under slavery, the black man has deeply suf- 
fered and slowly improved ; the white man has ignobly enjoyed 
and rapidly degenerated. Three or four, or five generations of ser- 
vitude have extirpated whatever of warlike and rebellious energy 
the negro may have once possessed ; and, of late years, the Chris- 
tian religion, in a rude and tropical form — much feeling and little 
knowledge — has exerted a still more subduing influence upon them. 
Some more or less correct version of the story of the Cross has be- 
come familiar to them all, as well as the sentiments of the Sermon 
on the Mount. To no people, of all the suffering sons of men, has 
that wondrous tale come home with such power as to these sad and 
docile children of Africa. Are not they, too, men of sorrow ? Are 
not they, too, acquainted with grief ? Have not they, too, to suffer 
and be silent? — revenge impossible, forgiveness diviiieiy com- 
manded ? 

Insurrection ! If a Springfield musket and a Sheffield bowie- 
knife were this day placed in every negro hut in the South, and 
every master gone to the war, the negroes might use those weap- 
ons, but it would be to defend, not to molest, their masters' wives 

* " On reading Mrs. Stowe's book, ' Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1 I thought it to be an overdrawn, highly- 
wrought picture of southern life ; but I have seen with my own eyes, and heard with my own 
ears, many things which go beyond her book, as much as her book does beyond an ordinary 
school-girl's novel."— Speech of General Butler at the Fifth, Avenue Hotel, New York, on hi& 
return from New Orleans. January 8, 1863. 

5 

LOf C. 



100 



BALTIMORE. 



and children. There is many a negro in the southern states who 
does actually stand in the same kind of moral relation to his mas 
ter as that which Jesus Christ bore to the Jews, when he said, 
" Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." And 
not moral relation only ; for the negro often has a clear mental per- 
ception of the fact stated. He sometimes stands above his master, 
at a hight which the master can neither see nor believe in. 



CHAPTER V. 

BALTIMORE. 

When war breaks out in a country after a long peace, it is nat- 
ural that the people should look for guidance first to men who won 
distinction in the wars of the past. The history of wars shows us 
that this is generally an error, fruitful of disaster. It gave us 
Washington, it is true; but Washington was but forty-four years 
of age when he left Philadelphia to take command of the armies of 
the revolution; and he had passed the twenty years which had 
elapsed since Braddock's defeat, not in the routine of a military 
office, but in hunting the fox, and in managing a great estate, which 
involved the control of some hundreds of human beings. The al- 
most sovereign lord of a little principality, he spent half his days 
in the saddle, and was constantly engaged in pursuits somewhat 
akin to those of a commander of armies. Neither his mind nor his 
blood could stagnate, roaming those extensive fields and forests, 
foreseeing, calculating, providing, governing. But the rule usually 
holds good, that a war develops its own hero ; the heroes of tha 
past not proving adequate to the new emergency. 

At the beginning of this rebellion, there was an officer at the seat 
of government who had been a general in the service of the United 
States for forty-nine years. Two generations had been accustomed 
to regard him as the ablest of American soldiers ; and for a long 
series of years, he had been highest in place, as well as highest in 
the confidence of the public. The reputation of a living person has 



BALTIMORE. 



101 



in it a principle of growth. If a man has done something which so 
enters into the history of his nation, that children necessarily he- 
come familiar with his name at school, he may sit still for thirty 
years, and yet find his reputation growing ; until, by the death of 
cotemporaries, it becomes, perhaps, unique and over shadowing. 
The haze of antiquity gathers round it, veiling and yet magnifying 
the basis of fact upon which it rests. And if, perchance, the an- 
cient hero, emerging from the vast, dim halo of his name, presents him- 
self to view, in his old age, at the head of a conquering army, thun- 
dering at the gates of an enemy's capital, vague reverence is chang- 
ed to conscious enthusiasm, and no one doubts that here, indeed, is 
the " first captain of the age." TThen the war began, therefore, and 
rumors of an impending attack upon the capital alarmed the coun- 
try, the name of TTinfield Scott appeared sufficient to allay appre- 
hension. It seemed of itself a tower of strength ; it was a rallying 
point for the gathering forces of the country ; it gave assurance to 
millions of minds that the resources of the nation, so lavishly offer- 
ed, would be employed with intelligence and success. If there was 
a moment when some men feared that the mania of secession 
might seize even him, the fear was quickly dispelled, when he was 
seen renewing his oath of allegiance, and responding in imequivocal 
language to the cheers of arriving regiments. There he was, the 
center of attraction, conspicuous among the conspicuous, apparently 
rolling up the whirlwind, and elaborating the storm that was sup- 
posed to be about to sweep over the rebellious states resistless. 
Fatal delusion ! 

General Scott was seventy-five years of age. An old wound 
partly disabled him. A recent accident had shaken him severely. 
He could not mount a horse. He could not walk a mile. The 
motion of a carriage soon fatigued him. His vast form was itself a 
heavy burden. He required a great deal of sleep. He moved, 
thought, and acted slowly. Accustomed for fifty years to the petti- 
est details of a small, widely scattered army, he was now suddenly 
called upon to organize many aiTnies, and direct their movements 
against enemies in the field. A task more difficult than ever Napo- 
leon or \Vellington performed, was laid upon a man who, in his 
best days, would have been signally unequal to it ; for he had not 
been gifted by nature with that genius for command which alone 
could have formed invincible anr es out of masses of loosely organ- 



102 



BALTIMORE. 



ized men, having nothing that belongs to soldiers except arms and 
a willingness to use them for the restoration of their country. He 
was a man of exact, formal, unpliant mind. Accustomed long to 
the first place — accustomed also to that extravagant adulation which 
we used to bestow upon conspicuous persons, he was less likely to 
suspect his infinite insufficiency. 

This was well known, however, to every thinking man familiar 
with Washington. Mr. Lincoln was not familiar with Washington. 
He, too, had been accustomed to survey General Scott from a great 
distance, and he took for granted the correctness of the popular 
estimate, which pronounced him the first captain of the age ! Mr. 
Cameron, the secretary of war, was totally ignorant of the first 
rudiments of the military art ; and he had, too, a painful sense of 
his ignorance, which he frequently expressed. Hence, the military 
resources of the country were laid, as it were, humbly at the feet 
of General Scott, for him to use or misuse according to his good 
pleasure. 

Baltimore was the ruling topic in those days. Baltimore, still 
severed from all its railroad connections with the North, and still 
under control of the secession minority. One of the last reporters 
wbo made his way through the city, two or three days after the at- 
tack of the mob upon the Sixth Massachusetts, gave a striking 
narrative of his adventures, which kept alive the impression that 
Baltimore had gone over, as one man, to the side of the rebels, and 
-meant to resist to the death the passage of Union troops. 

" In the streets," he wrote, " of the lower part of the city, there 
*rere immense crowds, warm discussions, and the high pitch of ex- 
citement which discussion engenders. The mob — for Baltimore 
street was one vast mob — was surging to and fro, uncertain in what 
way to move, and apparently without any special purpose. Many 
had small secession cards pinned on their coat collars, and not a few 
were armed with guns, pistols and knives, of which they made the 
most display. 

" I found the greatest crowd surging around the telegraph office, 
waiting anxiously, of course, for news. The most inquiry was as to 
the whereabouts of the New York troops — the most frequent topic, 
the probable results of an attempt on the part of the Seventh regi 
ment to force a passage through Baltimore. All agreed that the 
force could never go through — all agreed that it would make the 



BALTIMORE. 



103 



attempt if ordered to do so, and none seemed to entertain a doubt 
that it would leave a winrow of the dead bodies of those who as- 
sailed it in the streets through which it might attempt to pass. 

" I found the police force entirely in sympathy with the seces- 
sionists and indisposed to act against the mob. Marshal Kane and 
the commissioners do not make any concealment of their proclivi- 
ties for the Southern Confederacy. Mayor Brown, upon whom I 
called, seemed to be disposed to do his duty — providing he knew 
what it was, and could do it safely. He was in a high state of ex- 
sitement when I mentioned my name and purpose. He manifested 
a disposition to be civil, and to give me information, but was evi- 
dently afraid that I was a Northern aggressor, with whom it was 
indiscreet for him to be in too close communication. Seeing his 
condition, I left him and went out in the crowd to gather public 
opinion again." 

Wild rumors were afloat. " At one time government had backed 
down — then it was going ahead ; Virginia was coming — Virginia 
was not coming. The New Yorkers, Pennsylvanians, the Massachu- 
setts men and the Rhode Islanders, were at one time marching one 
hundred abreast over the state, looking neither to the right nor the 
left — at another, no 4 d — d Yankee' would dare thus to pollute the 
sacred soil of Maryland. One told that Fort McHenry had been 
blown up, another that it was going to ' shell' the city, a third that 
it was only garrisoned by a handful, while a fourth was positive 
that at least a force double the full war allotment was within its 
walls. There was some talk that the fort would be attacked, 
but the opinion that there was a full garrison, having generally 
obtained, the attacking part of the programme was postponed. 
Though large crowds remained in the streets until morning, no 
unusual events transpired. Curiosity to see what was going on ap- 
peared to be the prevailing motive with those who were tramping 
about. * * * 

"About eight o'clock the next morning, the streets began 
again to be crowded. The bar-rooms and public resorts were 
closed, so that the incentive to precipitate action might not be too 
readily accessible. Nevertheless, there was much excitement, and 
among the crowds this morning, there were many men from the 
country, who carried shot and duck guns, and old-fashioned horse- 
pistols, such as the ' Maryland' line might have carried from the 



104 



BALTIMORE. 



first to the present war. The best weapons appeared to be in the 
hands of young men — boys of eighteen, with the physique and dress 
and style of deportment, cultivated by the 'Hook Boys' and 
' Dead Rabbits' of New York, as villainous looking compounds 
of reckless rascality as were ever produced in any community. 

"About ten o'clock, a cry was raised that 3,000 Pennsylva- 
nia troops were at the Calvert street depot of the Pennsylvania 
railroad, and were about to take up their line of march through the 
city. With a portion of the crowd, I made my way to the depot 
to find it by far the most quiet place in the city. There it was said 
that the 3,000 were at Pikesville, about fifteen miles from the city, 
and were going to fight their way around the city. The crowd did 
not seem disposed to interfere with a movement that required a 
preliminary tramp of fifteen miles through a heavy sand. But the 
city authorities, however, rapidly organized and armed some three 
or four companies and sent them toward Pikesville. Ten of the 
Adams express wagons passed up Baltimore, loaded with armed 
men. In one or two there were a number of mattresses, as if 
wounded men were anticipated. A company of cavalry also started 
for Pikesville, I supposed to sustain the infantry that had been ex- 
pressed. 

" All through the day, the accessions from the country were com- 
ing in. Sometimes a squad of infantry, sometimes a troop of horse, 
and once a small park of artillery. It was nothing extraordinary to 
see a 4 solitary horseman' riding in from the counties, with shot- 
gun, powder-horn and flask. Some came with provender lashed to 
the saddle, prepared to picket out for the night. Boys came with 
their fathers, accoutered apparently with the war sword and holster- 
pistols that had done service a century ago. There were strange 
contrasts between the stern, solemn bearing of the father, and the 
buoyant, excited, enthusiastic expressions of the boy's face. I had 
frequent talks with these people, and could not but be impressed 
with their devotion and patriotism ; for, mistaken as they were, 
they were none the less actuated by the most unselfish spirit of 
loyalty. They hardly knew, any of them, for what they had so sud- 
denly come to Baltimore. They had a vague idea only, that Mary- 
land had been invaded, and that it was the solemn duty of her sons 
%o pT otect their soil from the encroachments of an invading force."* 

* IT. Y. Daily Times, April 24th, 186L 



BALTIMORE. 



105 



Upon reading such letters as this, a great cry arose in the North 
for the re-opening of the path to Washington through Baltimore, 
even if it should involve the destruction of the rebellious city. The 
proceedings of General Butler at Annapolis, and the departure from 
Baltimore of the leading spirits of the mob to join the rebel army 
in Virginia, quieted the city, and gave the Union men some chance 
to make their influence felt. But this change was not immediately 
understood at Washington, and General Scott was meditating a 
great strategic scheme for the conquest of the city. 

His plan, as officially communicated on the 29th of April, to 
General Butler, General Patterson, and others who were to co- 
operate, were as follows : "I suppose," wrote the lieutenant-gen- 
eral, " that a column from this place (Washington) of three thou- 
sand men, another from York of three thousand men, a third from 
Perryville, or Elkton, by land or water, or both, of three thousand 
men, and a fourth from Annapolis, by water, of three thousand men, 
might suffice. But it may be, and many persons think it probable, 
that Baltimore, before we can get ready, will re-open the communi- 
cation through that city, and beyond, each way, for troops, army 
supplies, and travelers, voluntarily. When can we be ready for 
the movement on Baltimore on this side ? Colonel Mansfield has 
satisfied me that we want, at least, ten thousand additional troops 
here to give security to the capital ; and, as yet, we have less than 
ten thousand, including some very indifferent militia from the dis- 
trict. With that addition, we will be able, I think, to make the 
detachment for Baltimore." 

A day or two after the receipt of this letter, General Butler went 
to Washington to confer with the general-in-chief. He conversed 
with him fully upon the state of affairs. One suggestion offered on 
this occasion, by General Butler, has peculiar interest in view of 
subsequent events. He was of opinion, with Shakspeare, that the 
place to fight the wolf is not at your own front door, but nearer its 
own den. Manassas Junction he suggested, not Arlington Heights, 
Was the place where Washington should first be defended ; and he 
offered to march thither with two thousand men, destroy the rail- 
road connections with the South, and fortify the position. As there 
were then no rebel troops at the Junction, this could have been 
done without loss or delay. General Scott negatived the proposal. 
The Committee on the Conduct of the War have since character- 



106 



BALTIMORE. 



ized the omission to seize Manassas Junction at this time, as " the 
great error of that campaign." " The position at Manassas," add 
the Committee, " controlled the railroad communication in all that 
section of country. The forces which were opposed to us at the 
battle of Bull Run were mostly collected and brought to Manassas 
during the months of June and July. The three months' men could 
have made the place easily defensible against any force the enemy 
could have brought against it ; and it is not at all probable that 
the rebel forces would have advanced beyond the line ol the Rap- 
pahannock had Manassas been occupied by our troops." 

General Butler strongly urged his scheme of seizing Manassas, 
both in conversation and in writing, to various influential persons. 
General Scott's veto was decisive. 

The reduction of Baltimore was, however, the chief topic of dis- 
cussion between General Butler and the commander-in-chief. 
General Scott was still of opinion that some time must elapse be- 
fore troops could be spared for the attempt ; but he consented to 
General Butler's taking a regiment or two, and holding the Relay 
House, a station nine miles from Baltimore. Before leaving on 
this expedition, he asked General Scott what were the powers of a 
general commanding a department. The reply was, that, except 
as limited by specific orders and by military law, his powers were 
absolute ; he could do whatever he thought best. Upon receiving 
this information, General Butler privately consulted an officer of 
engineers, who ascertained for him, by reference to authoritative 
maps, that the city of Baltimore was within the Department of 
Annapolis, as defined in the order creating it. 

Saturday afternoon, May 4th, the Eighth New York, the Sixth 
Massachusetts, and Cook's battery of artillery received the wel- 
come order to be ready to march by two o'clock the next morning. 
General Butler had given a solemn promise to the Sixth, his own 
home regiment, which he had joined before his beard was grown, 
that they should, one day, if his advice was taken, march again 
through Baltimore. His selection of the regiment on this occasion 
was the beginning of the fulfillment of that promise. At daylight 
on Sunday morning, a train of thirty cars glided from the depot at. 
Washington ; from which, two hours later, the regiments issued at 
the Relay House, where they seized the depot and swarmed ove> 
the adjoining hills, reconnoitering. 



BALTIMORE. 



~No enemy was discovered ; there was no formidable enemy at 
that time any where near Washington, and there had not been ; 
but every man they met had something terrible to tell them of 
rebel dragoons hovering near. Cannons were planted on the 
heights. Camps were formed, and scouting parties sent out. 
Officers were detailed to go through all passing trains and seize 
articles contraband of war — such as weapons, powder, and intrench- 
ing tools. The general wrote to Washington to know if he might 
not arrest certain prominent traitors who lived near — members of 
the Carroll family and others. He concluded his first dispatch with 
these words: "I find the people here exceedingly friendly, and I 
have no doubt that with my present force I could march through 
Baltimore. I am the more convinced of this because I learn that, 
for several days, many of the armed secessionists have left for Har- 
per's Ferry, or have gone forth plundering the country. I trust my 
acts will meet your approbation, whatever you may think of my 
suggestions." 

General Butler remained a week at the Relay House. Large 
numbers of friendly people from Baltimore drove out to his camp, 
and, with them, some who were not friendly. He became perfectly 
well informed of the condition of the city. General Scott wrote 
approvingly of his acts, and authorized him to use his discretion in 
arresting the disaffected, and in seizing contraband articles. He 
also informed him that he need not remain at the Relay House 
" longer than he deemed his presence there of importance." He did 
not. 

Incidents occurred in camp at the Relay House, which created, 
at the time, a general sensation. A man from Baltimore, lounging 
about among the ISTew York soldiers, said to some of them, that 
the Baltimore mob was right in attacking the Massachusetts regi- 
ment, and would give them a still warmer reception on their return. 
Two officers at once arrested the man. In general orders of the 
uext morning, General Butler thanked the officers for doing so, 
and consigned the culprit to prison at Annapolis. In the same 
order, the general alluded to other events in a characteristic 
manner. 

"Two incidents of the gravest character marked the progress 
of yesterday. Charles Leonard, private, Company G, Eighth 
regiment of New York, was accidentally killed instantaneously by 



108 



BALTIMORE. 



the discharge of a musket from which he was drawing the charge. 
He was buried with all the honors, amidst the gloom and sorrow 
of every United States soldier at this post, and the tender sym- 
pathies of many of the loyal inhabitants in our neighborhood. * * * 
The first offering of New York of the life of one of her sons upon 
the country's altar, his blood mingling on the soil of Maryland with 
that of the Massachusetts men murdered at Baltimore, will form a 
new bond of union between us and all loyal states, so that without 
need of further incentive to our duty, we are spurred on by the 
example of the life and death of Leonard. 

" The other matter to which the general desires to call the atten- 
tion of the troops is this : Wishing to establish the most friendly 
relations between you and this neighborhood, the general invited 
all venders of supplies to visit our camp, and replenish our some- 
what scanty commissariat. But, to his disgust and horror, he finds 
well-authenticated evidence that a private in the Sixth regiment 
has been poisoned, by means of strychnine administered in the food 
brought into the camp by one of these peddlers. I am happy to be 
informed that the man is now out of danger. This act will, of 
course, render it necessary for me to cut off all purchases from 
unauthorized persons. 

" Are our few insane enemies among the loyal men of Maryland 
prepared to wage war upon us in this manner ? Do they know 
the terrible lesson of warfare they are teaching us ? Can it be that 
they realize the fact, that we can put an agent, with a word, into 
every household, armed with this terrible weapon ? In view of the 
terrible consequences of this mode of warfare, if accepted by us 
from their teaching, with every sentiment of devotional prayer, 
may we not exclaim, ' Father, forgive them ; they know not what 
they do !' Certain it is, that any such other attempt, reasonably 
authenticated as to the persons committing it, will be followed by 
the swiftest, surest, and most condign punishment." 

Such events as this could not but confirm the impression upon 
the minds of the troops, that they were posted in an enemy's coun- 
try. The vigilance of some of the officers was carried to a trouble- 
some extreme. One rainy night, the whole body of the troops, 
seventeen hundred in number, were called to arms four times by 
false alarms. On the last occasion, the general in command ad- 
dressed a peculiar reproof to the officer whose inexperience had 



BALTIMORE. 



109 



given the troops so many needless drenchings. This gentleman 
being a tailor by trade, the general roared out : 

" In God's name, Colonel , where are the other eight ?" 

General Butler managed the case of this over-zealous, but wo- 
fully ignorant officer with good-natured tact. He opened a way 
for his quiet transfer to a clerkship in a custom-house, where he 
served his country well. 

On the 13th of May, General Butler arrived at the conclusion 
that his presence at the Relay House was no longer necessary. 
Early in the morning, he telegraphed to General Scott, among 
other things, that Baltimore was in the department of Annapolis. 
An answer came back from Colonel Schuyler Hamilton, then on the 
staff of the lieutenant-general, which certainly could not be con- 
strued as forbidding the movement contemplated. 

" General Scott desires me to invite your attention to certain guilty 
parties in Baltimore, namely, those connected with the guns and 
military cloths seized by your troops (at the Relay House), as well 
as the baker who furnished supplies of bread for Harper's Ferry. 
It is probable that you will find them, on inquiry, proper subjects 
for seizure and examination. He acknowledges your telegram of 
this morning, and is happy to find that Baltimore is within your 
department." 

Later in the day, arrived a second dispatch from Colonel Hamil- 
ton : — 

" General Scott desires me to inform you that he has received in- 
formation, believed to be reliable, that several tons of gunpowder, 
designed for those unlawfully combined against the government, 
are stored in a church in Baltimore, in the neighborhood of Cal- 
houn street, between Baltimore and Fayette streets. He invites 
your attention to the subject." 

It is said that General Scott, who required much sleep, and who 
was oppressed with a multiplicity of business, did not always scru- 
tinize very closely the dispatches sent in his name, when they were 
supposed to relate to matters of mere detail. It may be that the 
meaning and tendency of these dispatches escaped his attention. 
Colonel Hamilton, who had enjoyed the opportunity at Annapolis 
of becoming acquainted with the quality of the Massachusetts 
brigadier was, certainly, not inclined to place any obstacles in his 
way. 



110 



BALTIMORE. 



At four o'clock in the afternoon of May 13th, the rebel spies at 
the Relay House felt sure, that at length, they were about to have 
something important to communicate to their employers at Balti- 
more. Two trains of cars stood upon the track, both headed 
toward Harper's Ferry, both loaded with troops. One was a short 
train, with a force of fifty men on board. The other was of im- 
mense length. It contained the whole of the Sixth Massachusetts, 
some companies of the New York Eighth, and two pieces of artil- 
lery, in all nine hundred men. The general's white horse, horses 
for the staff and artillery were on the train. When everything was 
in readiness, word was brought to the general that two fast Balti- 
more trotters were harnessed in a stable near by, which were to 
convey the tidings of the movement to Baltimore the moment the 
trains had started. 

" Let them go," said the general. 

The two trains moved slowly toward Harper's Ferry. The fast 
nags, at the same moment, were put on the road to Baltimore. 
General Butler secretly resolved to give them plenty of time to 
reach the city. Except himself and a few members of his staff, 
every man in the train was ignorant of his real design. 

Two miles from the Relay House, both trains halted a while. 
Then the smaller train Vept on 'ts way. It was bound to Fred- 
erick, where the troops were ordered to seize the millionaire, 
Ross Winans, and the machine then figuring ominously in the 
newspapers, or Winans's steam gun; a useless rattle-trap, as it 
proved. Winans was a thorough-going traitor, and one who, from 
his prodigious wealth (fifteen millions, it was thought), could give 
his fellow traitors abundant aid and very solid comfort. Already, 
he had manufactured five thousand pikes for the use of the Balti- 
more mob against the forces summoned by his country to defend its 
capital. An arch-traitor, and an old; gray hairs did what they 
could to " make his folly venerable." If ever treason was com- 
mitted, he had committed it ; for he had not even the empty excuse 
of the passage of an ordinance of secession by the legislature of his 
state. General Butler will interpret his orders with exact literal- 
ness, if this hoary-headed traitor falls into his hands, while he remains 
in command of the department of Annapolis, including the city of 
Baltimore. 

About six o'clock in the evening, the long train, with its nine 



BALTIMORE. 



Ill 



hundred men, the artillery and the horses, backed slowly past the 
Relay House again, and continued backing until it reached the 
depot at Baltimore. 

A thunder-storm of singular character, extraordinary both for its 
violence and its extent, hung over the city, black as midnight. It 
was nearly dark when the train arrived. ISTo rain had yet fallen ; 
but the whole city was soon enveloped in rushing clouds of dust. 
Flashes of lightning, vivid, incessant — peals of thunder, loud and 
continuous, gave warning of the coming deluge. The depot was 
nearly deserted, and scarcely any one was in the streets. By the 
time the troops were formed, it had become dark, except when the 
flashes of lightning illumined the scene, as if with a thousand 
Drummond lamps. This continuous change, from a blinding glare 
of light to darkness the most complete, was so bewildering, that if 
the general had not had a guide familiar with the city, he could 
scarcely have advanced from the depot. This guide was Mr. Robert 
Hare, of Philadelphia, son of the celebrated chemist, who, after 
rendering valuable services to the general elsewhere, had joined him 
at the. Relay House, and now volunteered to pilot him to Federal 
Hill. 

The word was given, and the troops silently emerged from the 
depot ; the general, Mr. Hare, and the staff in the advance. The 
orders were, for no man to speak a needless word ; no drums to 
beat ; and if a shot was fired from a house, halt, arrest every in- 
mate, and destroy the house, leaving not one brick upon another. 

When the line had cleared the depot, the storm burst. Such tor- 
rents of rain ! Such a ceaseless blaze of lightning ! Such crashes 
and volleys of thunder ! At one moment the long line of bayonets, 
the ranks of firm white faces, the burnished cannon, the horses and 
their riders, the signs upon the houses, and every minutest object, 
would flash out of the gloom with a distinctness inconceivable. 
The next, a pall of blackest darkness would drop upon the scene. 
Not a countenance appeared in any window ; for, so incessant was 
the thunder, that the tramp of horses, the tread of the men, the 
rumble of the cannon, were not heard ; or if heard for a moment, 
not distinguished from the multitudinous noises of the storm. As 
the general and his staff gained the summit of Federal Hill, which 
rises abruptly from the midst of the town, and turned to look back 
upon the troops winding up the steep ascent, a flash of unequaled 



112 



BALTIMORE. 



brilliancy gave such startling splendor to the scene, that an exclam- 
ation of wonder and delight broke from every lip. The troops 
were formed upon the summit, the cannon were planted, and Balti 
more was their own. 

Except a shanty or two, used in peaceful times as a lager-beer 
garden, there was no shelter on the hill. The men had to stand 
still in the pouring rain, with what patience they could. When 
the storm abated, scouts were sent out, who ferreted out a wood- 
yard, from which thirty cords of wood were brought ; and soon 
the top of the hill presented a cheerful scene and picturesque ; arms 
stacked and groups of steaming soldiers standing around fifty blaz- 
ing fires, each man revolving irregularly on his axis, trying to get 
himself and his blanket dry. 

General "Butler established his head-quarters in the German shan- 
ty. An officer, who had been scouting, came to him there in con- 
siderable excitement, and said : 

" I am informed, general, that this hill is mined, and that we are 
all to be blown up." 

" Get a lantern," replied the general, " and you and I will walk 
round the base of the hill, and see." 

They found, indeed, deep cavities in the side of the hill, but these 
proved to be places whence sand had been dug for building. After 
a thorough examination, the general said : 

" I don't think we shall be blown up ; but if we are, there is one 
comfort, it will dry us all." 

Returning to his shanty, General Butler, still as wet as water 
could make him, set about preparing his proclamation. 

At half-past eight in the morning, he received a note from the 
mayor, which showed how completely his movements had been con- 
cealed by the storm. The note had been written during the pre- 
vious evening. 

" I have just been informed," wrote the mayor, " that you have 
arrived at the Camden Station with a large body of troops under 
your command. As the sudden arrival of a force will create much 
surprise in the community, I beg to be informed whether you pro 
pose that it shall remain at the Camden Station, so that the pohofi 
may be notified, and proper precautions may be taken to prevent 
any disturbance of the peace." 

The mayor had not long to wait for information. An extra Clip 



BALTIMORE . 



113 



per of the morning, containing General Butler's proclamation, 
advised all Baltimore of his intentions. That document read as 
follows : 

"PROCLAMATION. 

"Depaetment of Annapolis, 
"Fedeeal Hill, Baltimoee, May 14, 1861. 

" A detachment of the forces of the Federal government, under my com- 
mand, have occupied the city of Baltimore for the purpose, among other 
things, of enforcing respect and obedience to the laws, as well of the state, 
if requested thereto by the civil authorities, as of the United States laws, 
which are being violated within its limits by some malignant and traitorous 
men ; and in order to testify the acceptance by the Federal government, 
of the fact that the city and all the well-intentioned portion of its inhabi- 
tants are loyal to the Union and the Constitution, and are to be so regarded 
and treated by all. To the end, therefore, that all misunderstanding of the 
purpose of the government may be prevented, and to set at rest all un- 
founded, false, and seditious rumors ; to relieve all apprehensions, if any are 
felt, by the well-disposed portion of the community, and to make it thor- 
oughly understood by all traitors, their aiders and abettors, that rebellious 
acts must cease ; I hereby, by the authority vested in me, as commander 
of the department of Annapolis, of which Baltimore forms a part, do now 
command and make known that no loyal and well-disposed citizen will be * 
disturbed in his lawful occupation or business ; that private property will 
not be interfered with by the men under my command, or allowed to be in- 
terfered with by others, except in so far as it may be used to afford aid and 
comfort to those in rebellion against the government whether here or else- 
where, all of which property, munitions of war, and that fitted to aid and 
support the rebellion, will be seized and held subject to confiscation, and, 
therefore, all manufacturers of arms and munitions of war are hereby re- 
quested to report to me forthwith, so that the lawfulness of their occupation 
may be known and understood, and all misconstruction of their doings may 
be avoided. No transportation from the city to the rebels of articles fitted 
to aid and support troops in the field will be permitted ; and the fact of such 
transportation, after the publication of this proclamation, will be taken and 
received as proof of illegal intention on the part of the consignors, and will 
render the goods liable to seizure and confiscation. 

" The government being now ready to receive all such stores and supplies, 
arrangements will be made to contract for them immediately to the owners ; 
and manufacturers of such articles of equipment and clothing, and munitions 
of war and provisions, are desired to keep themselves in communication 
with the commissary-general, in order that their workshops may be em- 



114 



BALTIMORE. 



ployed for loyal purposes, and the artisans of the city resume anl carry on 
their profitable occupations. 

" The acting assistant-quartermaster and commissary of subsistence of 
the United States here stationed, has been instructed to proceed and fur 
nish, at fair prices, 40,000 rations for the use of the army of the United 
States ; and further supplies will be drawn from the city to the full ex- 
ent of its capacity, if the patriotic and loyal men choose so to furnish sup- 
plies. 

• l All assemblages, except the ordinary police, of armed bodies of men, 
other than those regularly organized and commissioned by the state of Mary- 
land, and acting under the orders of the governor thereof, for drill and 
other purposes, are forbidden within the department. 

"All officers of the militia of Maryland, having command within the lim- 
its of the department, are requested to report through their officers forth- 
with to the general in command, so that he may be able to know and dis- 
tinguish the regularly commissioned and loyal troops of Maryland, from 
armed bodies who may claim to be such. 

" The ordinary operations of the corporate government of the city of 
Baltimore, and of the civil authorities, will not be interfered with ; but on 
the contrary, will be aided by all the power of the commanding general, 
upon proper call being made ; and all such authorities are cordially invited 
to co-operate with the general in command, to carry out the purposes set 
forth in the proclamation, so that the city of Baltimore may be shown to 
# the country to be what she is in fact, patriotic and loyal to the Union, the 
Constitution, and the laws. 

"No flag, banner, ensign or device of the so-called Confederate States, or 
any of them, will be permitted to be raised or shown in this department ; 
and the exhibition of either of them by evil disposed persons will be deem- 
ed, and taken to be, evidence of a design to afford aid and comfort to the 
enemies of the country. To make it the more apparent that the govern- 
ment of the United States far more relies upon the loyalty, patriotism, 
and zeal of the good citizens of Baltimore and vicinity, than upon any exhi- 
bition of force calculated to intimidate them into that obedience to the laws 
which the government doubts not will be paid from inherent respect 
and love of order, the commanding general has brought to the city with 
him, of the many thousand troops in the immediate neighborhood, which 
might be at once concentrated here, scarcely more than an ordinary guard ; 
and until it fails him, he will continue to rely upon that loyalty and patriot- 
ism of the citizens of Maryland, which have never yet been found wanting 
to the government in time of need. The general in command desires to 
greet and treat in this part of his department all the citizens thereof as 
friends and brothers, having a common purpose, a common loyalty, and a 
common country. Any infractions of the laws by the troops under hid 



BALTIMORE. 



115 



command, or any disorderly, unsoldierlike conduct, or any interference with 
private property, he desires to have immediately reported to him, and 
pledges himself that if any soldier so far forgets himself as to break those 
laws that he has sworn to defend and enforce, he shall be most rigorously 
punished. 

" The general believes that if the suggestions and requests contained in 
this proclamation are faithfully carried out by the co-operation of all good 
and Union-loving citizens, and peace, and quiet, and cer canity of future 
peace and quiet are thus restored, business will resume its accustomed chan- 
nels, trade take the place of dullness and inactivity, efficient labor displace 
idleness, and Baltimore will be in fact, what she is entitled to be, in the 
front rank of the commercial cities of the nation. 

" Given at Baltimore the day and year herein first above written- 

"Benj. F. Butlee, 
" Brigadier-general commanding department ofAnnapoMs." 

Not the slightest disturbance of the peace occurred. The sug- 
gestions and requests of the general were observed. There was 
plenty of private growling, and some small, furtive exhibitions of 
disgust, but nothing that could be called opposition. Contraband 
gunpowder, pikes, arms and provisions were seized. The Union 
flag was hoisted upon buildings belonging to the United States, 
and the flag of treason nowhere appeared. The camp equipage of 
the troops was brought in, and camps were formed upon the hill. 
Early in the afternoon, General Butler and his staff mounted their 
horses, and rode leisurely through the streets to the Gilmore 
house, where they dismounted, and strolled into the dining-room 
and dined ; after which they remounted, and enjoyed a longer ride 
in the streets, meeting no molestation, exciting much muttered re- 
mark. General Butler does not mount a horse quite in the style 
of a London guardsman. In mounting before the Gilmore house, 
across a wide gutter, he had some little difficulty in bestriding his 
horse, which, a passing traitor observing, gave rise to the report, 
promptly conveyed to Washington, that the general was drunk 
that day, in the streets of Baltimore. Such a misfortune is it to 
have short legs, with a gutter and a horse to get over. From that 
time, the soldiers, in twos and threes, walked freely about the city, 
exhilarated, now and then, by a little half-suppressed vituperation 
from men, and a ludicrous display of petulance on the part of lovely 
woman. Often they were stopped in the streets by Union men, 



116 



BALTIMORE. 



who shook them warmly by the hand, and thanked them for coming 
to their deliverance. 

There is a limit to the endurance of man. General Butler per- 
formed that day, one of his day's work. At night, exhausted to an 
extreme, for he had not lain down in forty hours, and racked with 
headache, he ventured to go to bed ; leaving orders, however, that 
he was to be instantly notified if anything extraordinary occurred. 
It perversely happened that many extraordinary things did occur 
that night. Some important seizures were made ; some valuable 
information was brought in ; many plausible rumors gained a hear- 
ing ; and, consequently, the general was disturbed about every half 
hour during the night. He rose in the morning unrefreshed, fever- 
ish, almost sick. His feelings may be imagined, when, at half-past 
eight, he received the following dispatch from the lieutenant-gene- 
ral, dated May 14th: 

" Sir, — Your hazardous occupation of Baltimore was made without 
my knowledge, and, of course, without my approbation. It is a 
God-send, that it was without conflict of arms. It is, also, reported, 
that you have sent a detachment to Frederick ; but this is impos- 
sible. ~Not a word have I received from you as to either move- 
ment. Let me hear from you." 

This epistle was not precisely what General Butler thought was 
due to an oflicer who, with nine hundred men, had done what 
General Scott was preparing to do with twelve thousand. It was 
a damper. It looked like a rebuke for doing his duty too well. 
The sick general took it much to heart; not for his own sake mere- 
ly ; he could not but augur ill of the conduct of the war if a neat 
and triumphant little audacity, like his march into Baltimore, was 
to be rewarded with an immediate snub from head-quarters. Being 
only a militia brigadier, he did not clearly see how a war was to be 
carried on without incurring some slight risk, now and then, of a 
conflict of arms. 

But there was little time for meditation. There were duties to 
be done. For one item, he had Ross Winans a prisoner in Fort 
McHenry ; his pikes and steam-gun being also in safe custody, with 
other evidence of his treason. He was preparing to try Mr. Wi- 
nans by court-martial, and telegraphed to Mr. Cameron, asking him 
not to interfere, at least, not to release him, until General Butler 
could go to Washington and explain the turpitude of his guilt. It 



BALTIMORE. 



117 



was, and is, the general's opinion, that the summary execution of a 
traitor worth fifteen millions, would have been an exhibition of 
moral strength on the part of the government, such as the times re- 
quired. His guilt was beyond question. If there is, or can be, such 
a crime as treason against the United States, this man had com- 
mitted it, not in language only, but in overt acts, numerous and 
aggravated. Mr. Seward, I need scarcely say, took a different view 
of the matter. Winans was released. Why his pikes and his steam- 
gun were not returned to him, does not appear. A few months 
after, it was found necessary to place him again in co nf i n ement. 

iSTothing would appease General Scott short of the recall of Gen- 
eral Butler from Baltimore, and the withdrawal of the troops from 
Fqderal Hill. General Butler was recalled, and General Cadwal- 
lader ruled in his stead. The troops were temporarily removed, 
and General Butler returned to Washington. 

That the president did not concur with the rebuke of General 
Scott, was shown by his immediately offering General Butler a com- 
mission as major-general, and the command of Fortress Monroe. 
That the secretary of war did not concur with it, I infer from a 
passage of one of his letters from St. Peter sburgh. "I always 
said," wrote Mr. Cameron, " that if you had been left at Baltimore, 
the rebellion would have been of short duration ;" a remark, the 
full significance of which may, one day, become apparent to the 
American people. I believe I may say, without improperly using 
the papers before me, that more than one member of the cabinet 
held the opinion, that General Butler's recall from Baltimore was 
solely due to his frustration of the sublime strategic scheme of 
taking the city by the simultaneous advance of four columns oi 
three thousand men each. 

The people mack, known their opinion of General Butler's con- 
duct in all the us^al ways. On the evening of his arrival in Wash- 
ington, he was serenaded, and most abundantly cheered. His 
little speech on this occasion was a great hit. The remarkable 
feature of it was, that it expressed, without exaggeration, as with- 
out suppression, his habitual feeling respecting the war into which 
the nation was groping its way. He talked to the crowd just as he 
had often talked, and talks to a knot of private friends : 

" Fellow-Citizexs : — Tour cheers for the old commonwealth of Massa- 
chusetts are rightly "bestowed. Foremost in the ranks of those who fought 



118 



BALTIMORE. 



for the liberty of the country in the revolution were the men of Massachu- 
setts. It is a historical fact, to which I take pride in now referring, that in 
the revolution, Massachusetts sent more men south of Mason and Dixon's 
line to fight for the cause of the country, than all the southern colonies put 
together ; and in this second war, if war must come, to proclaim the Dec- 
laration of Independence anew, and as a necessary consequence, establish 
the Union and the constitution, Massachusetts will give, if necessary, every 
man in her borders, ay, and woman ! [Cheers.] I trust I may be excused 
for speaking thus of Massachusetts ; but I am confident there are many 
within the sound of my voice whose hearts beat with proud memories of 
the old commonwealth. There is this difference, I will say, between our 
southern brothers and ourselves, that while we love our state with the true 
love of a son, we love the Union and the country with an equal devo- 
tion. [Loud and prolonged applause.] We place no 'state rights' 
before, above, or beyond the Union. [Cheers.] To us our country is first, 
because it is our country [three cheers], and our state is next and second, 
because she is a part of our country and our state. [Renewed applause.] 
Our oath of allegiance to our country, and our oath of allegiance to our 
state, are interwreathed harmoniously, and never come in conflict nor clash. 
He who does his duty to the Union, does his duty to the state ; and he who 
does his duty to the state does his duty to the Union — ; one inseparable, 
now and for ever.' [Renewed applause.] As I look upon this demonstra- 
tion of yours, I believe it to be prompted by a love of the common cause, 
and our common country — a country so great and good, a government so 
kind, so beneficent, that the hand from which we have only felt kindness 
is now for the first time raised in chastisement. [Applause.] Many things 
in a man's life may be worse than death. So, to a government there may 
be many things, such as dishonor and disintegration, worse than the shed- 
ding of blood. [Cheers.] Our fathers purchased our liberty and country 
for us at an immense cost of treasure and blood, and by the bright heavens 
above us, we will not part with them without first paying the original debt, 
and the interest to this date ! [Loud cheers.] "We have in our veins the 
same blood as they shed ; we have the same power of endurance, the same 
love of liberty and law. We will hold as a brother Mm who stands by the 
Union ; we will hold as an enemy him who would strike from its constella- 
tion a single sta**. [Applause.] But, I hear some one say, ' Shall we carry 
dii this fratricidal war ? Shall we shed our brothers' blood, and meet in 
arms our brothers in the South V I would say, ' As our fathers did not 
hesitate to strike the mother country in the defense of our rights, so we 
should not hesitate to meet the brother as they did the mother.' If this 
unholy, this fratricidal war, is forced upon us, I say, ' Woe, woe to them 
who have made the necessity. Our hands are clean, our hearts are pure ; 
but the Union must be preserved [intense cheering. When silence was 
restored, he continued] at all hazard of money, and, if need be. of every 



BALTIMORE. 



119 



life tils sida the arctic regions. [Cheers.] If the 25,000 northern soldiers 
who are here, are cut off, in six weeks 50,000 will take their place; and if 
they die by fever, pestilence, or the sword, a quarter of a million will take 
their place, till our army of the reserve will be women with their broom- 
sticks, to drive every enemy into the gulf. [Cheers and laughter.] I have 
neither fear nor doubt of the issue. I feel only horror and dismay for those 
who have made the war. Cod help them! we are here for our rights, for 
our country, for our flag. Our faces are set south, and there shall be no 
footstep backward. [Immense applause.] He is mistaken who supposes 
we can be intimidated by threats or cajoied by compromise. The day of 
compromise is past. 

"The government must be sustained [cheers] ; and when it is sustained, 
we shall give everybody in the Union their rights under the constitution, as 
we always have, and everybody outside of the Union the steel of the Union, 
<dll they shall come under the Union. [Cheers, and cries of 'good, go 
on.'] It is impossible for me to go on speech making ; but if you will go 
home to your beds, and the government will let me, I will go south fight- 
ing for the Union, and you will follow me."* 

A different scene awaited him the next morning in the office of 
the lieutenant-general, respecting which it is best to say little. He 
bore the lecture for half an hour without replying. But General 
Butler's patience under unworthy treatment is capable of being ex- 
hausted. It was exhausted on this occasion. Indeed, the specta- 
cle of cumbrous inefficiency which the head-quarters of the army 
then presented, and continued long to present, was such as to 
grieve and alarm every man acquainted with it, who had also an 
adequate knowledge of the formidable task to which the country 
had addressed itself. I am not ashamed to relate, that General 
Butler, on reaching his apartment, was so deeply moved by what 
had passed, and by the inferences he could but draw by what had 
passed, that he burst into hysteric sobs, which he found himself, for 
some minutes, unable to repress. And, what was worse, he had 
serious thoughts of declining the proffered promotion, and going 
home to resume his practice at the bar. Not that his zeal had 
nagged in the cause ; but it seemed doubtful whether, in the cir- 
cumstances, a man of enterprise and energy would be allowed to 
do anything of moment to promote the cause. 



* JV. Y. Dmhj Times. 



120 



FOETEESS MONEOE. 



If 

CHAPTER VI. 

FOETEESS MONEOE. 

The president had no lecture to bestow upon General Butler , 
but, on the contrary, compliment and congratulation. He urged 
him to accept the command of Fortress Monroe, and use the same 
energy in retaking Norfolk as he had displayed at Annapolis 
and Baltimore. After a day's consideration, the general said he 
was willing enough to accept the proffered promotion and the 
command of the fortress, if he could have the means of being 
useful there. As a base for active operations, Fortress Monroe 
was good ; he only objected to it as a convenient tomb for a 
troublesome militia general. Could he have four Massachusetts 
regiments, two batteries of field artillery, and the other requisites 
for a successful advance ? Not that Massachusetts troops were 
better than others, only he knew them better, and they him. Yes, 
he could have them, and should, and whatever else he needed for 
effective action. An active, energetic campaign was precisely the 
thing desired and expected of him, and nothing should be wanting 
on the part of the government to render such a campaign possible. 
This being understood, he joyfully accepted the commission and 
the command. General Butler's commission as major-general datea 
from May 16th, two days after his thunderous march into Balti- 
more. He is now, therefore, in reality, the senior major-general in 
the service of the United States. On that day, General McClellan 
and General Banks were still in the pay of their respective railroad 
companies ; General Dix was at home ; General Fremont was in 
Europe, attending to his private affairs. 

May 20th, General Butler received orders from General Scott foi 
tiis guidance at the scene of his future labors : 

" You will proceed," wrote the lieutenant-general, "to Fortress Monroe 
and assume the command of that post, when Colonel Dimniick will limit 
his command to the regular troops composing a part of its garrison, but 



FOETEESS MONEOE. 



121 



will, by himself and his officers, give such aid in the instruction of the 
volunteers as you may direct. 

" Besides the present garrison of Fortress Monroe, consisting of such com- 
panies of regular artillery, portions o£ two Massachusetts regiments of 
volunteers, and a regiment of Vermont volunteers, nine additional regi- 
ments of volunteers from New York may soon be expected there. Only a 
small portion, if any, of these can be conveniently quartered or encamped 
in the fort, the greater part, if not the whole area of which will be neces- 
sary for exercises on the ground. The nine additional regiments must, 
therefore, be encamped in the best positions outside of and as near the 
fort as may be. For this purpose it is hoped that a pine forest north of 
the fort, near the bay, may be found to furnish the necessary ground aad 
shade for some three thousand men, though somewhat distant from drink- 
ing and cooking water. This, as well as feed, it may be necessary to 
bring to the camp on wheels. The quartermaster's department has been 
instructed to furnish the necessary vehicles, casks, and draft animals. The 
war garrison of Fortress Monroe, against a formidable army, provided with 
an adequate siege train, is about 2,500 men. You will soon have there, in- 
side and out, near three times that number. Assuming 1,500 as a gajrison 
adequate to resist any probable attack in the next six months, or, at least, 
for many days or weeks, you will consider the remainder of the force, un- 
der your command, disposable for aggressive purposes and employ it ac- 
cordingly. 

" In respect to more distant operations, you may expect specific instruc- 
tions at a later date. In the mean time, I will direct your attention to the 
following objects: 1st. Not to let the enemy erect batteries to annoy For- 
tress Monroe ; 2d. To capture any batteries the enemy may have within 
a half day's march of you, and which may be reached by land ; 3d. The 
same in respect to the enemy's batteries, at or about Craney Island, though 
requiring water craft ; and 4th. To menace and to recapture the navy 
yard at Gosport, in order to complete its destruction, with its contents, 
except what it may be practicable to bring away in safety. It is expected 
that you .put yourself into free communication with the commander of the 
U. S. naval forces in Hampton Roads, and invite his cordial co-operation 
with you in all operations, in whole or in part, by water, and no doubt 
he will have received corresponding instructions from the Navy Depart- 
ment. 

" Boldness in execution is nearly always necessary ; but in planning and 
fitting out expeditions or detachments, great circumspection is a virtue. In 
important cases, where time clearly permits, be sure to submit your plans 
and ask instructions from higher authority. 

" Communicate with me often and fully on all matters important to the 
service." 



122 



FORTRESS MONROE. 



May 22g, at eight o'clock in the morning, the guns of the for- 
tress saluted General Butler as the commander of the post ; and as 
soon as th« ceremonies of his arrival were over, he proceeded to 
look about him, to learn what it was that had fallen to his share. 
In the course of the day, he made great progress in the pursuit ol 
knowledge. 

Fortress Monroe is a sixty-five acre field, with a low, massive 
stone wall around it ; big, black guns peering through and over 
the top of the wall ; and a mile and a half of canal wound round its 
base. Inside, are long barracks, hospitals, a little chapel, trees, 
avenues of trees, gardens, parade-grounds, green lawns, gravel 
walks ; and, m the midst, surrounded by trees and garden, a solid, 
broad, slate-peaked mansion, the residence of the commander of the 
post. Old Point Comfort, broadening at the extremity, so as to 
form a peninsula, seems made to be the site of a fort, and such 
it must remain as long as man wages war. Whoever holds it, and 
knows how to use it, is master of Virginia and North Carolina; 
for it either commands or threatens, and can be used so as to con- 
trol their navigable rivers, their harbors, and their railroad connec- 
tions with the South. The Southern Confederacy, so called, must 
have it, or retire to the Gulf. Without it, the Confederacy is noth- 
ing ; and the place can only be taken by a naval power superior 
to that of the United States, or by treachery. If it had been built 
with a prophetic view to the events of the last three years, the site 
could not have been better selected for the purposes of the United 
States. That it has not been used with all the effect it might have 
been, was not the fault of the new commandant, as shall soon be 
demonstrated. 

The country around it, on the main land, is level ; the soil, as 
Winthrop describes it, a fine fertile loam, easily running to dust as 
the English air does to fog ; the woods dense and beautiful ; the 
roads, miserable cart tracks ; the cattle " scallawags," the people 
ditto ; the farm houses dilapidated and mean ; such dens as a 
northern drayman would have disdained, and a hod-carrier only 
occupied on compulsion. A country settled for two hundred and 
thirty years, but not as pleasant, nor as commodious, nor as popu- 
lated, nor as civilised, as a county of Minnesota only surveyed ten 
years ago. But many of the people, though of incredibly con- 
tracted intelligence, were kind and hospitable, and, as events have 



FORTRESS MONROE. 



123 



shown, brave and enduring. If life seemed stagnant in that region, 
there was in it a latent energy and force, which poor Winthrop did 
not suspect, but which, however misdirected, he would have been 
among the first to recognize. Life stagnant is not so fatal as life 
wasted of its raw material. 

This huge fort was one of the hinges of the stable-door which 
was shut after the horse had been stolen, in the war of 1812. It 
had never been used for warlike purposes, and had been, usually, 
garrisoned by a company or two, or three, of regular troops, who 
paraded and drilled in its wide expanses with listless punctuality, 
and fished in the surrounding waters, or strolled about the adjacent 
village. Colonel Dimmick was the commandant of the post when 
the war broke out ; a faithful, noble-minded officer, who, with his 
one man to eight yards of rampart, kept Virginia from clutching 
the prize. Two or three thousand volunteers had since made their 
way to the fortress, and were encamped on its grounds. 

General Butler soon discovered that of the many things necessary 
for the defense of the post, he had a sufficiency of one only, namely, 
men. There was not one horse belonging to the garrison ; nor one 
cart nor wagon. Provision barrels had to be rolled from the land- 
ing to the fort, three-quarters of a mile. There was no well or 
spring within the walls of the fortress ; but cisterns only, filled with 
rain-water, which had given oi\t the summer before when there 
were but four hundred men at the post. Of ammunition, he had 
but five thousand rounds, less than a round and a half per man of 
the kind suited to the greater number of the muskets brought by 
the volunteers. The fort was getting over-crowded with troops, 
and more were hourly expected; he would have nine more regi- 
ments in a few days. Room must be found for the new comers 
outside the walls. He found, too, that he had, in his vicinity, an 
active, numerous, increasing enemy, who were busy fortifying 
points of land opposite or near the fort ; points essential for his 
purposes. The garrison was, in effect, penned up in the peninsula ; 
a rebel picket a mile distant ; a rebel flag waving from Hampton 
Bridge in sight of the fortress ; rebel forces preparing to hem in the 
fortress on every side, as they had done Sumter ; rumor, as usual, 
magnifying their numbers tenfold. Colonel Dimmick had been able 
to seize and hold the actual property of the government; no more. 

Water being the most immediate necessity, General Butler di- 
6 



124 



FORTRESS MONROE. 



rected his attention, first of all, to securing a more trustworthy sup- 
ply. Can the artesian well be speedily finished, which was begun 
long ago, and then suspended? It could, thought Colonel de 
Russy, of the engineers, who, at once, at the general's request, con- 
sulted a contractor on the subject. There was a spring a mile from 
the fortress, which furnished 700 gallons a day. Can the water be 
conducted to the fortress by a temporary pipe ? It can, reported 
the colonel of engineers ; and the general ordered it done. Mean- 
while, water from Baltimore, at two cents a gallon. To-morrow, 
Colonel Phelps, with his Vermonters, shall cross to Hampton, 
reconnoiter the country, and see if there is good camping ground 
in that direction ; for the pine forest suggested by General Scott 
was reported by Colonel de Russy to be unhealthy as well as 
waterless. In a day or two, Commodore Stringham, urged thereto 
by General Butler, would have shelled out the rising battery at 
Sewall's Point, if he had not been suddenly ordered away to the 
blockade of Charleston harbor. Already the general had an eye 
upon Newport News, eleven miles to the south, directly upon one 
of the roads he meant to take by and by, when the promised means 
of offensive warfare arrived. Word was brought that the enemy 
had an eye upon it, too; and General Butler determined to be 
there before them. That rolling of barrels from the landing would 
never do ; on this first day, the general ordered surveys and esti- 
mates for a railroad between the wharf and the fortress. The men 
were eating hard biscuit : he directed the construction of a new 
bake-house, that they might have bread. 

The next day, as every one remembers, Colonel Phelps made his 
reconnoissance in Hampton and its vicinity — not without a show of 
opposition. Upon approaching the bridge over Hampton Creek, 
Colonel Phelps perceived that the rebels had set fire to the bridge. 
Rushing forward at the double-quick, the men tore olf the burning 
planks and quickly extinguished the fire ; then marching into the 
village, completed their reconnoissance, and performed some evolu- 
tions for the edification of the inhabitants. Colonel Phelps met 
there several of his old West Point comrades, whom he warned of 
the inevitable failure of their bad cause, and advised them to aban- 
don it in time. The general himself was soon on the ground, and 
took a ride of seven miles in the enemy's country that afternoon, 
still eager in the pursuit of knowledge. 



FORTRESS MOXEOE. 



125 



One noticeable thing was reported by the troops on their return. 
It was, that the negroes, to a man, were the trusting, enthusiastic 
friends of the Union soldiers. They were all glee and welcome ; 
and Colonel Phelps and his men were the last people in the world 
to be backward in responding to their salutations. No one knew 
better than he that in every worthy black man and woman in the 
South the Union could find a helping friend if it would. By what- 
ever free-masonry it was brought about, the negroes received the 
impression, that day, that those Vermont ers and themselves were 
on the same side. 

This Colonel Phelps is one of the remarkable figures of the war. 
A tall, loose-jointed, stout-hearted, benignant man of fifty, the soul 
of honesty and goodness. It had been his fortune, before his retire- 
ment from the army, to be stationed for many years in the South. 
For the last thirty years, if any one had desired to test, with the ut- 
most possible severity, a New Englander's manhood and intelligence, 
the way to do it was to make him an officer of the United States 
army, and station him in a slave state. If there was any lurk- 
ing atom of baseness in him, slavery would be sure to find it 
out, and work upon it to the corruption of the entire man. If 
there was even defective intelligence or weakness of will, as surely 
as he continued to live there, he would, at last, be found to have 
yielded to the seducing influence, and to have lost his moral sense : 
first enduring, then tolerating, defending, applauding, participating. 
For slavery is of such a nature, that it must either debauch or 
violently repel the man who is obliged to live long in the hourly con- 
templation of it. There can be no medium or moderation. No 
man can hate slavery a little, or like it a little. It must either spoil 
or madden him if he lives with it long enough. Colonel Phelps 
stood the test; but, at the same time, the long dwelling upon 
wrongs which he could do nothing to redress, the long contempla- 
tion of suffering which he could not stir to relieve, impaired, in some 
degree, the healthiness, the balance of his mind. He seemed, al 
times, a man of one idea. With such tenderness as his, such quick- 
ness and depth of moral feeling, it is a wonder he did not go raving 
mad. When the war began, he was at home upon his farm, a man 
of wealth for rural Vermont ; and now he was at Fortress Monroe, 
commanding a regiment of three months' militia ; a very model of 
a noble, brave, modest, and righteous warrior, full in the belief that 



126 



FOKTRESS MOXEOE. 



the longed-for time of deliverance had come. It was a strange 
coming together, this of the Massachusetts democrat and the Ver- 
mont abolitionist — both armed in the same cause. General Butler 
felt all the worth of his new friend, and they worked together with 
abundant harmony and good-will. 

Colonel Phelps's reconnoissance led to the selection of a spot be- 
tween Hampton and the fort for an encampment. The next day. 
General Butler went in person to Newport News, and, on the fifth 
day after taking command of the post, had a competent force at 
that vital point, intrenching and fortifying. Meanwhile, in exten- 
sive dispatches to head-quarters, he had made known to General 
Scott his situation and his wants. He asked for horses, vehicles, 
ammunition, field-artillery, and a small force of cavalry. Also (for 
attacks upon the enemy's shore b'atteries), he asked for fifty surf- 
boats, " of such construction as the lieutenant-general caused to be 
prepared for the landing at Vera Cruz, the efficiency and adapt- 
edness of which has passed into history." He asked for the comple- 
tion of the artesian well, and the construction of the short railroad. 
He justified the occupation of Newport News, on the ground that 
it lay close to the obvious highway, by water, to Richmond, upon 
which already General Butler had cast a general's eye. 

On the evening of the second day after his arrival at the post, the 
event occurred which will for ever connect the name of General 
Butler with the history of the abolition of slavery in America. 
Colonel Phelps's visit to Hampton had thrown the white inhabitants 
into such alarm that most of them prepared for flight, and many 
left their homes that night, never to see them again. In the confu- 
sion three negroes escaped, and, making their way across the 
bridges, gave themselves up to a Union picket, saying that their 
master, Colonel Mallory, was about to remove them ^ North Caro- 
lina to work upon rebel fortifications there, far away from their 
wives and children, who were to be left in Hampton. They were 
brought to the fortress, and the circumstance was reported to the 
general in the morning. He questioned each of them separately, 
and the truth of their story became manifest. He needed laborers. 
He was aware that the rebel batteries that were rising around him 
were the work chiefly of slaves, without whose assistance they 
could not have been erected in time to give him trouble. He 
wished to keep these men. The garrison wished them kept. The 



F0ETEESS MONEOE. 



127 



country would have deplored or resented the sending of them 
away. If they had been Colonel Mallory's horses, or Colonel Mal- 
lory's spades, or Colonel Mallory's percussion caps, he would have 
seized them and used them, without hesitation. Why not property 
more valuable for the purposes of the rebellion than any other ? 

He pronounced the electric words, " These men are Conteaband 
of Wae ; set them at work." 

" An epigram," as Winthrop remarks, " abolished slavery in 
the United States." The word took ; for it gave the country an 
excuse for doing what it was longing to do. Every one remem- 
bers how relieved the " conservative" portion of the people felt, 
when they found that the slaves could be used on the side of the 
Union, without giving Kentucky a new argument against it, Ken- 
tucky, at that moment, controlling the policy of the administra- 
tion. "The South," said Wendell Phillips, in a recent speech, 
" fought to sustain slavery, and the North fought not to have it 
hurt. But Butler pronounced that magic word, ' contraband,' and 
summoned the negro into the arena. It was a poor word. I do 
not know that it is sound law ; but Lord Chatham said, ' melius 
liber homo'' is coarse Latin, but it is worth all the classics. Con- 
traband is a bad word, and may be bad law, but it is worth all 
the Constitution ; for in a moment of critical emergency it sum- 
moned the saving elements into the national arena, and it showed 
the government how far the sound fiber of the nation extended." 

By the time the three negroes were comfortably at work upon 
the new bake-house, General Butler received the following brief 
epistle, signed, "J. B. Carey, major-acting, Virginia volunteers:" 

" Be pleased to designate some time and place when it will be 
agreeable to you to accord me a personal interview." 

The general complied with the request. In the afternoon two 
groups of horsemen might have been seen approaching one another 
on the Hampton road, a mile from the fort. One of these consisted 
of General Butler and two of his staff, Major Fay and Captain 
Haggerty ; the other, of Major Carey and two or three friends. 
Major Carey and General Butler were old political allies, having 
acted in concert both at Charleston and at Baltimore — hard-shell 
democrats both. After an exchange of courteous salutations, and 
the introduction of companions, the conference began. The conver- 
sation was, as nearly as can be recalled, in these words : 



128 



FORTRESS MONROE. 



Major Carey : " I have sought this interview, sir, for the pur- 
pose of ascertaining upon what principles you intend to conduct 
the war in this neighborhood." 

The general bowed his willingness to give the information de- 
sired. 

Major Carey : " I ask, first, whether a passage through the 
blockading fleet will be allowed to the families of citizens of 
Virginia, who may desire to go north or south to a place of 

safety." 

General Butler : " The presence of the families of belligerents is 
always the best hostage for their good behavior. One of the 
objects of the blockade is to prevent the admission of supplies 
of provisions into Virginia, while she continues in an attitude 
hostile to the government. Reducing the number of consum- 
ers would necessarily tend to the postponement of the object in 
view. Besides, the passage of vessels through the blockade would 
involve an amount of labor, in the way of surveillance, to prevent 
abuse, which it would be impossible to perform. I am under the 
necessity, therefore, of refusing the privilege." 

Major Carey : " Will the passage of families desiring to go 
north be permitted ?" 

General Butler: "With the exception of an interruption at 
Baltimore, which has now been disposed of, the travel of peaceable 
citizens through the North has not been hindered ; and as to the in- 
ternal line through Virginia, your friends have, for the present, en- 
tire control of it. The authorities at Washington can judge better 
than I upon this point, and travelers can well go that way in reach- 
ing the North." 

Major Carey : "lam informed that three negroes, belonging to 
Colonel Mallory, have escaped within your lines. I am Colonel 
Mallory's agent, and have charge of his property. What do you 
intend to do with regard to those negroes ?" 

General Butler : " I propose to retain them." 

Major Carey : " Do you mean, then, to set aside your constitu- 
tional obligations ?" 

General Butler : " I mean to abide by the decision of Virginia, 
as expressed in her ordinance of secession, passed the day before 
yesterday. I am under no constitutional obligations to a foreign 
country, which Virginia now claims to be." 



FORTRESS MONROE. 



129 



Major Carey : " But you say, we can't secede, and so you can 
not consistently detain the negroes." 

General Butler : " But you say, you have seceded, and so you 
can not consistently claim them. I shall detain the negroes as con- 
traband of war. You are using them upon your batteries. It is 
merely a question whether they shall be used for or against the 
government. Nevertheless, though I greatly need the labor which 
has providentially fallen into my hands, if Colonel Mallory will 
come into the fort and take the oath of allegiance to the United 
States, he shall have his negroes, and I will endeavor to hire them 
from him." 

Major Carey : " Colonel Mallory is absent." 

The interview here terminated, and each party, with polite fare- 
well, went its way. 

This was on Friday, May 24. On Sunday morning, eight more 
negroes came in, and were received. On Monday morning, forty- 
seven more, of all ages ; men, women, and children ; several whole 
families among them. In the afternoon, twelve men, good field 
hands, arrived. And they continued to come in daily, in tens, 
twenties, thirties, till the number of contrabands in the various 
camp? numbered more than nine hundred. A commissioner of 
negro affairs was appointed, who taught, fed, and governed them ; 
who reported, after several weeks' experience, that they worked 
well and cheerfully, required no urging, and perfectly compre- 
hended him when he told them that they were as much entitled to 
freedom as himself. They were gentle, docile, careful and efficient 
laborers ; their demeanor dignified, their conversation always 
decent. 

General Butler's correspondence with the government on this 
subject is not forgotten ; but it is proper that it should be repeated 
here. He merely related his interview with Major Carey in his 
first letter to General Scott, and asked for instructions. In his 
second dispatch, dated May 27th, he referred to the subject again. 

"Since I wrote my last," he observed, "the question in regard 
to slave property is becoming one of very serious magnitude. The 
inhabitants of Virginia are using their negroes in the batteries, and 
are preparing to send their women and children south. The es- 
capes from them are very numerous, and a squad has come in this 
morning, and my pickets are bringing their women and children. 



'130 FORTRESS 3IOKROE. 

Of course these can not be dealt with upon the theory on which I 
designed to treat the services of able-bodied men and women who 
might come within my lines, and of which I gave you a detailed 
account in my last dispatch. 

" I am in the utmost doubt what to do with this species of prop- 
erty. Up to this time I have had come within my lines men and 
women, with their children, entire families, each family belonging 
to the same owner. I have, therefore, determined to employ, as I 
can do very profitably, the able-bodied persons in the party, issuing 
proper food for the support of all, and charging against their ser- 
vices the expense of care and sustenance of the non-laborers, keep- 
ing a strict and accurate account as well of the services as of the 
expenditures, having the worth of the services, and the cost of the 
expenditure determined by a board of survey hereafter to be de- 
tailed. I know of no other manner in which to dispose of this sub- 
ject, and the questions connected therewith. As a matter of prop- 
erty, to the insurgents it will be of very great moment, the number 
that I now have amounting, as I am informed, to what in good 
times would be of the value of $60,000. 

" Twelve of these negroes, I am informed, have escaped from the 
erection of the batteries on Sewall's Point, which fired on my expe- 
dition as it passed by out of range. As a means of offense, there- 
fore, in the enemy's hands, these negroes, when able-bodied, are of 
great importance. Without them the batteries could not have been 
erected, at least for many weeks. As a military question, it would 
seem to be a measure of necessity, and deprives their master of their 
services. 

" How can this be done ? As a political question, and a question 
of humanity, can I receive the services of a father and a mother, and 
not take the children ? Of the humanitarian aspect I nave no doubt ; 
of the political one I have no right to judge. I therefore submit 
all this to your better judgment ; and, as these questions have a 
political aspect, I have ventured, and I trust I am not wrong in so 
doing, to duplicate the parts of my dispatch relating to this subject, 
and forward them to the secretary of war." 

The secretary replied, May 30th : " Your action in respect to the 
negroes who came-wrthin your lines, from the service of the rebels, 
is approved. The department is sensible of the embarrassments, 
which must surround officers conducting military operations iu a 



FOETEESS iTONEOE. 



131 



state, by the laws of which slavery is sanctioned. The govern- 
ment can not recognize the rejection by any state of its federal obli- 
gation ; resting upon itself, among these federal obligations, how- 
ever, no one can be more important than that of suppressing and 
dispersing any combination of the former for the purpose of over 
throwing its whole constitutional authority. While, therefore, you 
will permit no interference, by persons under your command, 
with the relations of persons held to service under the laws 
of any state, you will on the other hand, so long as any state within 
which your military operations are conducted, remain under the 
control of such armed combinations, refrain from surrendering to 
alleged masters any persons who come within your lines. You 
will employ such persons in the services to which they will be best 
adapted, keeping an account of the labor by them performed, of 
the value of it, and the expenses of their maintenance. The ques 
tion of their final disposition will be reserved for future determina- 
tion." 

So the matter rested for two months, at the expiration of which 
events revived the question. Meanwhile, General Butler was ob- 
servant of the conduct and the character of the negroes, and had 
divers reflections upon the tendency of the patriarchal institution. 
The negroes accepted readily enough their new name of Contra- 
bands, without being able to get any one to answer intelligibly 
their frequent question, why the white folks called them so. 

Many strange scenes occurred in connection with this flight of 
the negroes to "Freedom Fort," as they styled it ; for one of which, 
perhaps, space may be spared here. It gives us a glimpse into one 
of those ancient Virginia homes suddenly desolated by the war 
Major TYmthrop, I should premise, had now arrived at the fortress. 
He came just in time to take the place of military secretary to the 
general commanding, which had been vacant only a day or two, and 
was now a happy member of the general's family, winning his rapid 
Way to all hearts. I mention him here because his comrades remem- 
ber how intensely amused he was at the interview about to be de- 
scribed. If he had lived a few days longer than he did,' he would 
probably have told it himself, in his brief, bright, graphic manner. 
The office of the general at head-quarters was the place where the 
scene occurred. 

Enter, an elderly, grave, church-warden looking gentleman, ap- 
6* 



FORTRESS MOXROE. 



pareutly oppressed with care or grief. He was recognized as a 
respectable farmer of the neighborhood, the owner, so called, of 
thirty or forty negroes, and a farm-honse in the dilapidated style 
of architecture, which might be named the Virginian Order. Ad- 
vancing to the table, he announced his name and business. He said 
he had come to ask the officer commanding the post for the return 
of one of his negroes — only one ; and he proceeded to relate the 
circumstances upon which he based his modest request. But he 
told his tale in a manner so measured and woful, revealing such a 
curious ignorance of any other world than the little circle of ideas 
and persons in which he had moved all his life, with such naive and 
comic simplicity, that the hearers found it impossible to take a se- 
rious view of his really lamentable situation. He proceeded in 
something like these words : — 

" I have always treated my negroes kindly. I supposed they loved 
aie. Last Sunday, I went to church. When I returned from 
church, and entered into my house, I called Mary to take off my 
3oat and hang it up. But Mary did not come. And again I called 
Mary in a louder voice, but I received no answer. Then I went 
into the room to find Mary, but I found her not. There was no 
one in the room. I went into the kitchen. There was no one in 
the kitchen. I went into the garden. There was no one in the gar- 
den. I went to the negro quarters. There was no one at the ne- 
gro quarters. All my negroes had departed, sir, while I was at 
the house of God. Then I went back again into my house. And 
soon there came to me James, who has been my body-servant for 
many years. And I said to James : 

" 4 James, what has happened ?' 
And James said, 4 All the people have gone to the fort.' 

w 4 While I was gone to the house of God, James ?' 

44 And James said, ' Yes, master ; they're all gone.' 

" And I said to James, 4 Why didn't you go too, James V 

44 And James said, ' Master, I'll never leave you.' 

44 4 Well James,' said I, 4 as there's nobody to cook, see if you 
can get me some cold victuals and some whisky.' 

44 So James got me some cold victuals, and I ate them with a 
heavy heart. And when I had eaten, I said to James : 

44 4 James, it is of no use for us to stay here. Let us go to your 
mistress.' 



.FORTRESS MONROE. 



133 



" His mistress, sir, had gone away from her home, eleven miles, 
fleeing from the dangers of the war. 

" 4 And, so, James/ said I, ' harness the best horse to the cart, 
and put into the cart our best bed, and some bacon, and some corn 
mea. and, James, some whisky, and we will go unto your mis- 

tf6Sfi.' 

" And James did even as I told him, and some few necessaries 
besides. And we started. It was a heavy load for the horse. I 
trudged along on foot, and James led the horse. It was late at 
night, sir, when we arrived, and I said to James : 

" 4 James, it is of no use to unload the cart to-night. Put the 
horse into the barn, and unload the cart in the morning.' 

" And James said, ' Yes, master.' 

" I met my wife, sir ; I embraced her, and went to bed ; and, not- 
withstanding my troubles, I slept soundly. The next morning, 
James was gone ! Then I came here, and the first thing I saw, 
when I got here, was James peddling cabbages to your men out of 
that very cart." 

Up to this point, the listeners had managed to keep their counte- 
nances under tolerable control. But the climax to the story was 
drawled out in a manner so lugubriously comic, that neither the 
general nor the staff could longer conceal their laughter. The poor 
old gentleman, unconscious of any but the serious aspects of his 
case, gave them one sad, reproachful look, and left the fort with- 
out uttering another word. He had fallen upon evil times. 

General Butler, meanwhile, had been studying the country around 
him with a true general's eye. His dispatches to head-quarters 
teem with evidence that, inexperienced as he was in the business of 
waging war, he comprehended the advantages and opportunities of 
his position. The uppermost thought in his mind was, that the 
way to Richmond was by the James river — not through the mazes 
of Manassas and the wilderness beyond him. Hear him : 

May 27, the fourth day of his command : " The advantages of 
Newport News are these : There are two springs of very pure 
water there. The bluff is a fine, healthy situation. It has two 
good, commodious wharves, to which steamers of any draft of 
water may come up at all stages of the tide. It is as near any 
point of operation as Fortress Monroe, where we are obliged to 
lighten all vessels of draft over ten feet, and have but one wharf. 



134 



FORTRESS MONROE. 



The News, upon which I propose to have a water battery of four 
eight-inch guns, commands the ship channel of James river, and a 
force there is a perpetual menace to Richmond. My next point 
of operation, I propose, shall be Pig Point battery, wbich is exactly 
opposite the News, commanding Nansemond rivr. Once in com- 
mand of that battery, which I believe can easily b° turned, I can 
then advance along the Nansemond and easily take Suffolk, and 
there either hold or destroy the railroad connection both between 
Richmond and Norfolk, and between Norfolk and the South, 
With a perfect blockade of Elizabeth river, and taking and holding 
Suffolk, and perhaps York, Norfolk will be so perfectly hemmed in, 
that starvation will cause the surrender, without risking an attack 
on the strongly fortified intrenchments around Norfolk, with great 
loss, and perhaps defeat. If this plan of operations does not meet 
the approbation of the lieutenant-general, I would be glad of his in- 
structions specifically. If it is desirable to move on Richmond, 
James and York rivers, both thus held, would seem to be the most 
eligible routes. I have no co-operation, substantially, by the navy, 
the only vessels now here being the Cumberland and the Harriet 
Lane ; the former too unwieldy to get near shore to use her bat- 
tery ; the other so light in her battery as not to be able to cope 
with a single battery of the rebels. I have great need of surf-boats 
for sea-coast and river advances, and beg leave to suggest the mat- 
ter again to you." 

June 4 — eight days later. " I have here, altogether, about six 
thousand effective men. I am, as yet, without transportation or 
surf-boats, which I must have, in order to make a movement. * * 
I ara preparing myself, however, to be able to land, by causing one 
regiment, at least, to be drilled in embarking in and landing from 
boats. I have also sent up to the mouth of the Susquehannah, to 
charter or purchase ten of a kind of boat which, I am informed by 
a gentleman connected with the squadron, will be the best possible, 
excepting regularly constructed surf-boats, for the purpose of land 
ing troops." 

June 6. " The intrenchments at Newport News will have been 
completed by the time this report reaches you, and the place is 
really very strong. A battery of four eight-inch columbiads wil 1 
command the channel of the river upon one side, but still leaves 
open the channel on the Nansemond side. On that side, as you wil" 



E0ETEESS MONEOE. 



135 



perceive, is Pig Point, upon which the rebels have erected bat- 
teries, which they are striving now to finish, mounting seven 
guns, thirty-twos and forty-fours. If we were in possession of Pig 
Point, the James and Nansemond would be both under our control, 
and the services of our blockading vessels might be dispensed with, 
which are now required to prevent water communication between 
Richmond and Williamsburgh, and between Norfolk and Suffolk. 
My proposition is, therefore, to make a combined land and naval 
attack upon Pig Point, and endeavor to carry the batteries, both 
by turning them, and by direct attack upon the naval force. If we 
succeed, then to intrench ourselves there with what speed we 
may, and re-establish the battery. But, at the same time, to push 
on, with the same flotilla of boats with which we landed, up the 
Nansemond, which is navigable for boats, and, I believe, light- 
draught steamers, to Suffolk, a distance of twelve miles. When 
once there, the commanding general's familiarity with the country" 
(his native region), "or a glance at the map, will show that we are 
in possession of all the railroad communication between Richmond, 
Petersburgh and Norfolk, and also of the great shore line con- 
necting Virginia with North Carolina, via Weldon, by which the 
guns taken at the navy yard will be sent south, whenever opera- 
tions in that direction demand. 

" By going eight and a half miles further by the Jericho Canal, 
we enter Drummond Lake, a sheet of water some six miles by four. 
From this lake the feeders of the Dismal Swamp Canal may be 
cut, and that means of transport cut off. Once at Suffolk, with 
three lines of the enemy's communication cut off, Norfolk must fall 
with her own weight. Starvation, to be brought on simply by 
gathering up the provisions of Princess Anne County, will make 
her batteries and the theft of the navy yard guns substantially 
valueless, and will save many lives which would be otherwise spent 
in their reduction. 

" I am not insensible to the disadvantages and difficulties of the 
project, the advantages of which I may have painted with too much 
couleur de rose. 

" I do not recognize as among the most formidable the reduction 
of Pig Point battery, as there is plenty of depth of water within 
point-blank range, to float the Cumberland ; but the battery once 
reduced, there must be a pretty active march on Suffolk to prevent 



136 



F0ETEESS MOXEOE. 



troublesome fortifications there, which I believe have not yet been 
undertaken 

" If' I am right in the importance which I attach to this position, 
then I must expect all the force of the rebels, both from Norfolk 
and Richmond, brought thither by railroad, to be precipitated upon 
me, and be prepared to meet it in the open field. Could they do 
otherwise ? Norfolk would be hemmed in. Am I able to with- 
stand such an attack, between two forces which may act in con- 
junction, with the necessary drafts from my forces to keep open the 
line of communication by the Nansemond with Newport News, 
which would then be the right flank of my base of operations ? 
All these questions, much more readily comprehended by the gene- 
ral-in-chief than by myself, with the thousand suggestions that will j 
at once present themselves to his mind, are most respectfully sub- 
mitted. 

" May I ask for full and explicit instructions upon the matter ?" 

This was the scheme. It meant, Begin the war heee. Strike at 
Richmond from this point. Sever Virginia from the South, by 
darting hence upon her railroad centers. Make war where your 
navy can co-operate. Use the means which God and nature have 
given you, and which Colonel Dimmick preserved. Don't sit there 
in Washington, puttering upon forts and defenses, listening anxious- 
ly to the roar from the North, " On to Richmond ;" but give the 
enemy something to do elsewhere, far away from your capital and 
your sacred things, yet made near to you by your command of the 
sea. 

General Butler's plans might not have been completely success- 
ful ; but if they had been adopted we should have had no Bull 
Run ; and, perhaps, no Merrimac — the true cause of the failure of 
the peninsular campaign. Other disasters we might have suffered^ 
but surely nothing so bad as Bull Run and the Merrimac, the most 
costly calamities that ever befell a country. 

The reply to General Butler's eager dispatches present to us a 
curious study. The reader must make what he can of it. Date, 
June 10th : 

" Sir, — Your letters of the 1st and 6th instant are received. The 
general-in-chief desires me to say in reply, that he highly com- 
mends your zeal and activity, which oblige the enemy to strengthen 
his camps and posts in your vicinity, and hold him constantly on 



FORTRESS MONROE. 



137 



the alert. The principal value of your movement upon Suffolk is, 
that it would be the easiest route to the Gosport Navy Yard, and 
the objects (including many ships of war) which our people on the 
former occasion left undestroyed. The possession of Norfolk in it- 
self is of no importance whilst we blockade Hampton Roads ; but 
the destruction of the railroads leading from that city, as far as you 
may find it practicable, would be a valuable coercive measure. 
The naval commander should aid you in the collection of boats, 
and the secretary of war has said that he would cause some eighty 
horses to be bought and shipped to you for a light battery." 

These were the " full and explicit instructions" for which General 
Butler had written. He must have been puzzled to decide whether 
the letter was designed to sanction or discourage his enterprise. 
Nor was it easy to see what the naval commander could do in the 
way of providing the requisite number of boats. If, however, the 
words of the commander-in-chief were equivocal, his conduct was 
not. No horses were sent, nor battery of field artillery, nor vehicles, 
nor cavalry, nor boats. No objection to the railroad, the artesian 
well, the bake-house, the intrenched camps; but whatever was 
needful for an advance beyond half a day's march was withheld. 
Such was the scarcity of horses that the troops were constantly seen 
drawing wagon loads of supplies. A reporter writes : " A picture 
in the drama of the camp has this moment passed my quarters. It 
is a gang of the Massachusetts boys hauling a huge military wagon, 
loaded. They have struck up 1 The Red, White and Blue.' They 
believe in it, and consequently render it with true patriotic inspira- 
tion. They pause and give three rousing cheers ; and now they 
dash off like firemen, which they are, shouting and thundering along 
at a pace that makes the drowsy horses they pass prick up their 
ears." To supply the most pressing occasions, General Butler had 
nine horses of his own brought from Lowell, and these were all he 
had for the public service for more than two months. Another 
reporter writes, June 28th : " Among the passengers on board the 
steamer to the fortress was Colonel Butler, brother of the general, 
who went to Washington last week to get orders for the purchase 
of horses, without which not a single step can be made in advance, 
simply because the forces here are entirely destitute of the means 
of transportation. He got orders and succeeded in buying one 
hundred and thirty-five very good horses, mainly in Baltimore, 



138 



FORTRESS MONROE. 



whereupon the government immediately sent up and took one hun- 
dred of them for the artillery service at Washington. This was 
pretty sharp practice, and gives rise to comment on the inability of 
the authorities at the capital to see anything but Washington 
worthy of a moment's thought in connection with the present war." 

The state of things certainly gave rise to comment, as the replies 
of official persons in Washington to General Butler's solicitations, 
abundantly show. One gentleman, who was necessarily acquainted 
with all that was going on at the seat of government, expressed 
himself with remarkable freedom in a letter to our general. 

June 8th, " I received your letter and dispatch, and, contrary to 
your orders, I read both to the president, under the seal of confi- 
dence, however. I have told him that would never let you 

have any troops to make any great blow, and I read the dispatch 
to show that I understood my man. He intended to treat you as he 

did , and as he has always treated those whom he knew would 

be effective if he gave them the means, retaining everything in his 
own power and under his own immediate control, so as to monop- 
olize all the reputation to be made. 

" I have been a little afraid lest you might attempt more than 
your means justified, under the impression that you would other- 
wise disappoint the country. But I am pleased to see that you 
have not made this mistake. You must work on patiently till you 
feel yourself able to do the work you attempt, and not play into 
your enemies' hands, or those of the miserable do-nothings here, by 
attempting more than in your cool judgment the force you have can 
effect. Tou will gradually get the means, and then you may make 
an effective blow. Unfortunately, indeed, the difficulties increase 
as your force increases, if not more rapidly. We have forty thou- 
sand men, I believe, and provisions and transportation enough to 
take them to Richmond any day, and yet our fines do not extend 
five miles into Virginia, where there are not, in my opinion, men 
enough to oppose the march of half the number to Richmond. 
Old is at with 20,000 men, and is moving as cau- 
tiously toward the Potomac as if the banks were commanded by an 
army of Bonaparte's best legions, instead of a mob, composed for the 
most part of men who only wait for an opportunity to desert a flag 
they detest. This war will last for ever if something does not hap- 
pen to unseat old . in the West, with 60,000 men under 



GREAT BETHEL. 



139 



canvas, has not made a movement except let a few regiments march 
up the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, at the urgent solicitations of 
the people. So we go. Congress will probably catch us without . 
our having performed any service worthy of the great force we 
have under pay." 

" I grumble this way all the time, and to every body, in the hope 
that I may contribute to push on the column. I am very much in 
hopes we shall be pushed into action by the indignation of the peo- 
ple, if not by our own sense of what is due to the cause we have 
taken in hand." 



CHAPTER VIL 

GREAT BETHEL. 

When this letter reached the fortress, General Butler was im- 
mersed in the last details of a movement, the result of which was to 
show him, and show the country, that sitting in an office arranging 
a masterly plan of action is one thing, and the successful execution 
of the same is another. His correspondent read the answer to his 
letter in the newspapers ; first with exultation, then with bewilder- 
ment, lastly with dismay. For the news of Great Bethel came to 
us as so much of the news of the war has come; first, in enormous 
flattering lies ; secondly, in exaggerated contradictory rumors of 
disaster ; finally, and gradually, in a dim resemblance to the truth. 

" Severe engagement near Fortress Monroe — Two hours' fight 
at Big Bethel — Terrible mistake of the Seventh and Third regi- 
ments — Masked batteries of Rifled Cannon open on our troops — ■ 
Twenty-five killed, and one hundred wounded — Withdrawal from 
the Field — Renewal of the Battle by General Butler — The Rebel 
Batteries Captured, and One Thousand Prisoners taken." 

Thus was the disaster first Heralded. Then came news, that our 
unfortunate regiments had been hurled upon a battery armed with 
Ytljirtyjgieces of rifled cannon, protected in front by an impassable 
creek, from which, after standing "a terrific fire" for an hour and a 
half, they had recoiled, with a loss, variously stated, from twenty 



140 



GREAT BETHEL. 



five to a hundred. Other accounts assured us that our men were 
on the point of taking the battery, when an order came from some 
unknown source to retire. 

The whole truth about Great Bethel does not appear to have 
been anywhere published. Mr. Pollard's rebel account is a little 
nearer the truth than any other which I have seen; though, of 
course, it is distorted by the insanity of hatred common to all our 
" Southern brethren."* Our " Southern brethren" excel in the 
business of hating through constant practice. Mr. Pollard would 
have been a man of honor and truth if he had been reared five de- 
grees north of Richmond. As it is, he only escapes being one, 
when certain imaginary beings, whom he names Yankees, are the 
theme of his vigorous pen. 

The affair of Great Bethel happened thus : 

The forced inaction of General Butler had the effect of making 
the enemy bolder in approaching his lines. They would send par- 
ties from Yorktown, who would come down within sight of the 
Union pickets near Hampton, and seize both Union men and ne- 
groes, conscripting the former, using the latter on their batteries. 
Major Winthrop, always on the alert, learned from a contraband, 
George Scott by name, that the rebels had established themselves 
at two points between Yorktown and the fort, where they had 
thrown up intrenchments, and whence they nightly issued, seizing 
and plundering. George Scott described the localities with perfect 
correctness, and Winthrop himself, accompanied by George repeat- 
edly reconnoitered the road leading to them. On one point only 
was the negro guide mistaken : he thought the rebels were two 
thousand in number; wheieas, when he saw them, five hundred 
was about their force. They had eleven or twelve hundred men in 
the two Bethels on the day of the action, but not more than five 
hundred took part in it ; the rest having arrived, on a run, from 
Yorktown while the " battle" was proceeding, and, before they had 
recovered breath, it was over. 

Major Winthrop reported to General Butler, who resolved to at 
tempt the capture of the two posts. His orders restricted hira tc 
advances of half a day's march. Great Bethel being nine miles 
distant, might be considered within the limit. 

* "First year of the war." New York Edition, p. 77. 



\ 



GREAT? BETHEL. 



141 



NTow, all was excitement and activity at head-quarters — no one 
so happy as Winthrop, who threw himself, heart and soul, into the 
affair. The first rough plan of the expedition, drawn up in his own 
hand, lies before me ; brief, hasty, colloquial, interlined ; resem- 
bling the first sketch of an " article" or a story ; such as^ doubtless, 
he had often dashed upon paper at Staten Island. 

PLAN OF ATTACK BY TWO DETACHMENTS UPON LITTLE 
BETHEL AND BIG BETHEL. 

A vegiment or battalion to march from Newport News, and a regiment 
to march from Camp Hamilton — Duryea 1 s. Each will be supported by suf- 
ficient reserves under arms in camp, and with advanced guards out on the 
rood of march. 

Duryea to push out two pickets at 10 p. m. ; one two and a half miles 
heyond Hampton, on the county road, but not so far as to alarm the 
enemy. This is important. Second picket half as far as the first. Both 
pickets to keep as much out of sight as possible. No one whatever to be 
allowed to pass out through their lines. Persons to be allowed to pass in- 
ward toward Hampton — unless it appears that they intend to go rounda- 
bout and dodge through to the front. 

At 12, midnight, Colonel Duryea will march his regiment, with fifteen 
rounds cartridges, on the county road towards Little Bethel. Scows will 
be provided to ferry them across Hampton Creek. March to be rapid ; 
tut not hurried. 

A howitzer with canister and shrapnel to go. 

A wagon with planks and material to repair the Newmarket Bridge. 
Duryea to have the 200 rifles. He will pick the men to whom to intrust 
them. 

Rocket to be thrown up from Newport News. Notify Commodore Pen 
dergrast of this to prevent general alarm. 

Newport News movement to be made somewhat later, as the distance is 
less. 

If we find the enemy and surprise them, men will fire one volley, if desi- 
rable ; not reload, and go ahead with the bayonet. 

As the attack is to be by night, or dusk of morning, and in two detach- 
ments, our people should have some token, say a white rag (or dirty 
white rag) on the left arm. 

Perhaps the detachments who are to do the job should be smaller than a 
regiment 300 or 500, as the right and left of the attack would be more 
easily handled. 

If we bag the Little Bethel men, push on to Big Bethel, and similarly 
bag them. Burn both the Bethels, or blow up if brick. 



142 



GREAT BETHEL. 



To protect our rear in case we take the field-pieces, and the enemy 
should march his main body (if he has any) to recover them, it would be 
well to have a squad of competent artillerists, regular or other, to handle 
the captured guns on the retirement of our main body. Also spikes to 
spike them, if retaken. 

George Scott to have a shooting-iron. 

Perhaps Duryea's men would be awkward with a new arm in a night or 
early dawn attack, where there will be little marksman duty to perform. 
Most of the work will be done with the bayonet, and they are already 
handy with the old ones. 

" George Scott to have a shooting-iron !" So, the first sugges- 
tion of arming a black man in this war came from Theodore Win- 
throp. George Scott had a shooting-iron. 

This plan, the joint production of the general and his secretary, 
was substantially, adopted, and orders in accordance therewith were 
issued. 

The command of the expedition was given to Brigadier-General 
E. W. Pierce, of Massachusetts, a brave and good man, totally 
without military experience except upon parade-grounds on train- 
ing days. General Butler, as we have before said, was his junior 
in the militia of Massachusetts, and had been selected by Governor 
Andrew to command the first brigade which left the state, over the 
head of General Pierce, wiio desired to go. It was by way of 
atonement to General Pierce for having taken the place which be- 
longed by seniority to him, that General Butler assigned him to the 
command. The motive was honorable to his feelings as a man. 
On Boston Common the act would have been highly becoming and 
quite unobjectionable. But, alas ! the theater of action was not 
Boston Common. 

General Butler has an eye for the man he wants. This was the 
first time, and the last time, in his military career, that he has se- 
lected an ofiicer for an independent command, for any other reason 
but a conviction that he was the best man at hand for the duty to 
be done. General Pierce was a brave and good man; reputed then 
to be such ; since proved to be such ; but he was not the best man 
at hand for the duty to be done. Out of a good citizen you can make 
a good soldier in four months ; but a good ofiicer is a creature slowly 
produced. Seven years in peace, one year in war, may do it, but 
he must have served an apprenticeship, before he is fit to be in- 



GREAT BETHEL. 



143 



trusted with the lives of men and the honor of a country. The day 
before Bethel, General Butler had the brains of a general, the cour- 
age of a general, the toughness of a general, the technical knowl- 
edge of a general ; but to fit him for independent command, he still 
needed some such harsh and bitter experience as now awaited him. 
The day after Bethel, he had made a prodigious stride in his mili- 
tary education, for he is a man who can take a hint. The whole 
secret of war was revealed in the flash and thunder, the disaster 
and shame, of that sorry skirmish. 

All went well until near the dawn of day, June 10th, when the 
forces were to form their junction near Little Bethel. There Colo- 
nel Bendix's regiment saw approaching over the crest of a low hill 
what seemed, in the magnifying dusk, a body of cavalry. It was 
Colonel Townsend's regiment which they saw. Knowing that 
General Butler had no cavalry, Colonel Bendix concluded, of course, 
that they were a body of mounted rebels. The fatal order was 
given to fire, and ten of Colonel Townsend's men fell ; two killed 
and eight wounded. The fire was returned in a desultory manner, 
without loss to the regiment of Colonel Bendix. Of the confusion 
that followed, the double-quick counter-marching, the alarm to 
■friends and foes, I need not speak. The dawn of day revealed the 
error, and then the question arose, whether to advance or to return 
to the fortress. A surprise was no longer possible, and the inhabi- 
tants of the country concurred in stating the force of the enemy 
at four or five thousand, with formidable artillery. Colonel 
Duryea had already captured the picket at Little Bethel. The 
enemy, therefore, fully warned, must be concentrated at Great 
Bethel. Major Winthrop and Lieutenant Butler, both of the com- 
manding general's staif, united in most earnestly advising an ad- 
vance, and General Pierce gave no reluctant assent. He had sent 
back for re-enforcements which were soon on the march to join him. 

At half past nine, he had arrived within a mile of the enemy, with 
two regiments and four pieces of cannon of small caliber, one of 
which was the gun of Lieutenant Greble of the regular artillery. 
Two other regiments were approaching. The ground may be 
roughly described thus : An oblong piece of open country, sur- 
rounded on three sides by woods, General Pierce entering at the 
end where there was no wood. The enemy's position was near the 
upper end, but behind a strip of wood which concealed it. Tt 



144 



GREAT BETHEL. 



was, in some slight degree, protected in front by a creek twelve 
feet wide and three deep. Their battery consisted of four pieces 
of field artillery, one of which becoming disabled through the dis* 
arrangement of the trigger-apparatus, was useless. The earth- 
works, hastily thrown up in front of the guns, added scarcely any 
strength to the position, for they were less than three feet high 
on the outside. A boy ten years old could have leaped over them ; 
a boy ten years old could have waded the creek. The breastworks 
were, in fact, so low that the wheels of the enemy's guns were 
embedded in the earth, in order to get the carriages low enough to 
be protected. These facts I learn from a Union officer of high rank, 
who afterward became familiar with the ground. Behind these 
trivial works were five hundred rebel troops, who were re-enforced 
while the action was going on with six hundred more from York- 
town, thoroughly blown with running. This was the real strength 
of the enemy, whom General Pierce firmly believed to consist of 
four or five thousand troops strongly posted, and well supplied with 
artillery. 

General Pierce and his command then stood, at half-past nine, 
on the high road leading from Hampton to Yorktown, a mile from 
the enemy, whose battery commanded the road. That battery was 
so placed that it could have been approached within fifty yards 
without the attacking party leaving the woods. Nor was there any 
serious obstacle to turning it either on the right or on the left. 
This not being immediately perceived, Colonel Duryea and Lieuten- 
ant Greble marched along the high road into the enemy's fire, and 
soon the cannon balls began to play over their heads, falling far to 
the rear. The men gave three cheers and kept on their way. 
Soon, however, the enemy fired better, and some men were struck ; 
not many, for the total loss of Colonel Duryea's regiment that day 
was four killed, and twelve wounded. To these troops, in then 
inexperience, it seemed that work o*f this kind could not be down 
in the programme. They also received the impression that the 
enemy's three pieces of cannon were thirty at least, and that, upon 
the whole* this was not the right road to the battery. So they 
sidled off into the woods, and there remained waiting for some one 
to tell them what to do next. Greble kept on to a point three hun- 
dred yards from the enemy, where he planted his gun, and main- 
tained a steady and effective fire upon them for an hour and a ha "if. 



GREAT BETHEL. 



145 



I say effective. It did not kill a rebel ; but it had the effect of keep- 
ing them within their works, and giving them the idea that they 
were attacked. 

After Colonel Duryea had retired to the woods, there was a long 
pause in the operations, during which a good plan was matured 
for turning the enemy's' battery, and getting in behind it. It was 
agreed that Colonel Townsend should keep well away to the left, 
near the wood, or through the wood, and go on to the Yorktown 
road beyond the battery ; then turn down upon it, and dash in. 
Colonel Duryea and Colonel Bendix were to march through the 
woods on the right, and penetrate to the same road below the bat< 
tery, and then rush in upon it simultaneously with Colonel Town- 
send. It was an excellent and most feasible scheme, certain of 
success if -executed with merely tolerable vigor and resolution. 
Colonel Duryea again advanced, this time through the woods. He 
went as far as the creek, and concluding it to be impassable by his 
" Zouaves," retired a second time, with some trifling loss ; Lieutenant- 
Colonel Warren, and a few brave men remaining long enough to 
bring away the body and the gun of poor Greble, shot by the ene- 
my's last discharge. Meanwhile Colonel Townsend was making 
his way far on the other side of the road. He was going straight 
to victory ; Major Winthrop among the foremost, full of ardor and 
confidence, and the men in good heart. In five minutes more he 
would have gained a position on the Yorktown road beyond the 
battery, from which they could have marched upon the enemy, as 
in an open field. Then occurred a fatal mistake. In the haste of 
the start, two companies of the regiment had marched on the other 
side of a stone fence ; and, anxious to get forward, were coming 
up to the front at some distance from the main body in the open 
field. Colonel Townsend seeing these troops, supposed that the} 
were a body of the enemy coming out to attack him in flank. He 
)rdered a halt, and then returned to the point of departure to meet 
this imaginary foe. Winthrop, as is supposed, did not hear the 
order to retire. With a few troops he still pressed on, and when 
the y halted, still advanced, and reached a spot thirty yards from 
the enemy's battery. With one companion, private John M. Jones 
of Vermont, he sprang upon a log to get a view of the position, 
which he alone that day clearly saw. A ball pierced his brain. 
He almost instantly breathed his last. His body being left on the. 



146 



GEE AT BETHEL. 



field fell into the hands of the foe. In their opinion, he was the 
only man in the Union force who displayed " even an approxima- 
tion to courage," and they gave his remains the honorable burial 
due to the body of a hero, and returned his watch and other effects 
to his commanding officer. 

General Pierce, with the advice of all • the colonels except Col. 
Duryea, gave the order to retire! and so the "battle" of Great 
Bethel ended. Some of the companies retired in tolerable order. 
But there was a great deal of panic and precipitation, though the 
pursuit was late and languid. The noble Chaplain Winslow and 
the brave Lieutenant-Colonel G. K. Warren,* with a few other 
firm men, remained behind ; and, all exhausted as they were, drew 
the wounded in wagons nine miles, from the scene of the action to 
the nearest camp. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Warren reports : 

" I remained on the ground about an hour after all the force had 
left. As Colonel Carr retired, Captain Wilson, of his regiment, 
carried off the gun at which Lieutenant Greble had been killed, but 
left the limber behind. I withdrew this along with Lieutenant 
Greble's body, assisted by Lieutenant Duncan and twelve men of 
the N. Y. First, and sent it on to join the piece. I remained with 
Chaplain Winslow, and a few men of the N. Y. Third, Fifth, and 
Seventh, getting the wounded together, whom we put into carts and 
wagons, and drew off by hand. There were three or four mortally 
wounded and several dead, whom we had to leave from inability to 
carry them. I sent several messengers to get assistance ; and as 
we moved slowly, finding no one, I pushed ahead as fast as I could 
go on foot (having given the animal I rode to a wounded man). I 
overtook none but the worn-out stragglers till I came up to Captain 
Kapff, of the N". Y. Seventh, who with seven or eight men stopped, 
as also did Captain McNutt of the Second, detailed by Colonel 
Carr. They both rendered essential service in checking the advance 
of the enemy's horsemen, who finally came on and pursued up to 
New Market Bridge. 

" The noble conduct of Chaplain "Winslow, and the generous- 
hearted men who remained behind to help the wounded, deserves 
the highest praise ; and the toilsome task which they accomplished 

* Since brigadier-general and chief of staff to General Meade— distinguished on many fields, 
particularly at the battles in Pennsylvania in June, 1863. 



GEEAT BETHEL. 



14V 



of dragging the rude vehicles, filled with their helpless comrades, 
over a weary road of nine miles in their exhausted condition, with 
the prospect of an attack every minute, bespeak a goodness of heart 
and a bravery never excelled. Besides the wounded and dead left 
behind, there were a number of canteens and haversacks, and a few 
muskets and bayonets, all of which I think was caused by a mis- 
understanding. Our regiment did not think we were going back 
more than a few hundred yards to rest a little, out of fire, and then 
make another attack. There was no pursuing force, or the least 
excuse for precipitancy. ~No shots were fired at the little party 
who carried away the limber of Lieutenant Greble's gun, and the 
long while which elapsed without any one appearing in front of the 
enemy's lines, would indicate that he was very weak in numbers, 
or perhaps had begun to retire. The force which the enemy 
brought into action was not, I think, greater than 500 men. His 
great advantage over us was artillery protected from our fire. I 
still am of the opinion that the position, as we found it, was not 
difiicult to take with experienced troops, and could have been 
turned on our left. The trees protected our approach, and sheltered 
us from their battery till we were quite close, and the march in 
front was practicable for footmen. We labored under great disad- 
vantage in want of experience in firing, and in the exhaustion of 
our men from want of sleep, long marching, and hunger. 

" The enemy had a rifled gun or two, shooting bolts of about the 
caliber of four-pounders, and eight inches long, with soft metal base ; 
some of them were hollow, with a Boarman fuse at the point, and 
all did not burst. Some of their twelve-pounder shells also failed 
to explode. There were probably three to five guns sheltered by 
a breastwork, and one or two that were moved around to different 
points. 

" The breastwork was placed so that the guns enfiladed the little 
bridge. The gun placed to sweep the long reach of road before 
you came to the bridge was driven away by Lieutenant Greble's 
fire, which prevented our loss from being far greater than it was. 
The skill and bravery displayed by Lieutenant Greble could not 
have been surpassed ; and the fortune which protected him from 
the enemy's fire only deserted him at the last moment. The 
discharge which killed him was one of the last made by the 
enemy's guns. His own guns were never silenced by the enemy's 
7 



148 



CONSEQUENCES OF GEEAT BETHEL. 



fire, and the occasional pauses were to husband his am muni 
tion." 

The Union loss in killed and permanently disabled was twenty- 
five. The rebel loss, one man killed and three wounded. A few 
hours after the action, Great Bethel was evacuated. If General 
Pierce had withdrawn his men out of lire, and caused them to sit 
down and eat their dinner, it is highly probable the enemy would 
have retreated ; for they were greatly outnumbered, and were per- 
fectly aware that one regiment of steady and experienced troops, 
led by a man who knew his business, could have taken them all 
prisoners in twenty minutes. For the most part, our men, I am 
assured, behaved as well as could have been expected. All they 
wanted was commanders who knew what was the right thing to 
do, and who would go forward and show them how to do it. One 
well-compacted, well-sustained rush from any point of approach, 
and the battery had been theirs. 



CHAPTER vnr. 

CONSEQUENCES OF GREAT BETHEL. 

Great Bethel was a trifling skirmish ; but, occurring just when it 
did, it was a calamity. It was the first shock of arms between the 
belligerents, and gave the key-note to at least the overture of the 
war — the first campaign. Splendid fighting has since been done, 
and a great deal of it. There has, also, been much bad fighting, 
many ill-concerted movements, much misconduct on the part of 
officers, some shameful flights and panics. It does not appear cer- 
tain that we have yet learned to comply with all the fundamental 
conditions of successful war. We still seem capable, occasionally, 
of starting back in affright from phantoms, instead of marching 
forward and preventing phantoms from becoming realities. We 
all know what allowances were to be made for these Bethel regi- 
ments. We knew how they had left their counting-rooms and 
shops for a long frolic at soldiering, with officers who were, per- 



CONSEQUENCES OF GEEAT BETHEL. 



149 



haps, more ignorant of their new profession than if they had nsver 
shone on parade, or distinguished themselves in the drill room. 
There is a kind of knowledge which deludes more than total igno- 
rance, since it seems to conceal our ignorance from ourselves and 
from others. 

It was rather surprising than otherwise that the first fighting of 
the war was done as well as it was done, since all the influences of 
our education and business had long tended to abate that exuber- 
ance of spirit, that confidence in our strength, which makes men 
mighty to dare and to overcome. The training which diminishes a 
man's fighting power is not culture, but effeminacy. 

But if we had not learned the true secret of successful warfare, 
we are learning it ; we shall learn it. Much creditable fighting has 
been done by the Union armies. But, contending as we are with a 
desperate foe, our armies must acquire the coherency which is only 
obtained by supplying them with officers whose superiority of 
knowledge will command the confidence of the men in critical 
moments. For many a year to come, perhaps, the elite of the young 
men of America will have to be bred to arms as a profession. 

The day after Bethel was a sad one at Fortress Monroe. Lieu- 
tenant Greble's father was on his way to visit his son, and arrived 
only to take back his remains to his family, followed by the sorrow 
of the whole command. The fate of Winthrop was not yet known ; 
he was reported only among the " missing." Before leaving head- 
quarters he had borrowed a gun of the general, saying, gayly, 
" I may want to take a pop at them." In the course of the morn- 
ing, this gun was brought in, with such information as led to the 
conclusion that he must have fallen ; perhaps, thrown his life pur- 
posely away. During his short residence at head-quarters he had 
endeared himself to all hearts ; to none more than to the general 
and Mrs. Butler. He was mourned as a brother by those who had 
known him but sixteen days. 

As Mr. Curtis beautifully says in his fine sketch of his friend's ca- 
reer, " Theodore Winthrop's life, like a fire long smoldering, sud- 
denly blazed up into a clear bright flame, and vanished. Descended 
from John Winthrop and Jonathan Edwards, numbering among 
his ancestors seven presidents of Yale College, -of which he was him- 
self a distinguished graduate, with fine gifts, powerful friends, good 
opportunities, he lived thirty-three years vithout finding work that 



150 



CONSEQUENCES OP GEEAT BETHEL. 



could absorb and content him, unless it were literature, and for that 
he seemed to lack the something — bodily stamina, confidence in his 
powers, force of ambition or pressure of necessity — which could 
convert his longing into a career. His desk was full of manuscripts, 
since rightly valued; but his name was unknown to the public till 
tie wrote the story of the march of the Seventh regiment. It was 
not force of vitality that he wanted. He had been everywhere, 
seen everything; walked over Scotland, Italy, Switzerland; ridden 
over our western plains and deserts. A short, slight, most active 
figure. "Often," says Mr. Curtis, "after writing for a few hours 
in the morning, he stepped out of doors, and, from pure love of the 
fun, leaped and turned summersets upon the grass, before going 
ap to town. In walking about Staten Island, he constantly stopped 
by the roadside fences, and, grasping the highest rail, swung him- 
self swiftly and neatly over and back again, resuming the walk and 
the talk without delay." Overwork at school and college had 
robbed him of that unchecked growth without which there can be 
no sustained fullness of endeavor. Unlearning what he had learned 
amiss, learning essential things of which the schools had given him 
no hint, chasing the world over after health — so passed the years 
of his maturity. 

To the mother of his dead comrade, General Butler addressed 
the following letter : 

" Head-quaetees Depaetment of Virginia, 
" JunelZth, 1861. 

" My Deae Madam : — The newspapers have anticipated me in the sorrow- 
ful intelligence which I have to communicate. Yonr son Theodore is no 
more. He fell mortally wounded from a rifle shot, at County Bridge. I 
have conversed with private John M. Jones, of the iSTorthfield company in 
the Vermont regiment, who stood beside Major Winthrop when he fell, 
and supported him in his arms. 

" Your son's death was in a few moments, without apparent anguish. 
After Major Winthrop had delivered the order with which he was charged, 
to the commander of the regiment, he took his rifle, and while his guide 
held his horse in the woods in the rear, with too daring bravery, went to 
the front ; while there, stepping upon a log to get a full view of the force, 
he received the fatal shot. His friend, Colonel Wardrop, of Massachusetts, 
aad loaned him a sword for the occasion, on which his name was marked 
in full, so that he was taken by the enemy for the colonel himself. 



JO.N SEQUENCES OF GREAT BETHEL. 



151 



"Major Winthrop had advanced so close to the parapet, that it was not 
thought expedient by those in command to send forward any party to bring 
off the body, and thus endanger the lives of others in the attempt to secure 
his remains, as the rebels remorselessly fired upon all the small parties that 
went forward for the purpose of bringing off their wounded comrades. 

" Had your gallant son been alive, I doubt not he would have advised 
this course in regard to another. I have assurances from the officer in com- 
mand of the rebel forces at County Bridge, that Major Winthrop received 
at their hand a respectful and decent burial. 

" His personal effects found upon him, will be given up to my flag of 
truce, with the exception of his watch, which has been sent to Yorktown, 
and which I am assured will be returned through me to yourself. 

" I have given thus particularly these sad details, because I know and have 
experienced the fond inquiries of a mother's heart respecting her son's acts. 

"My dear madam! although a stranger, my tears will flow with yours in 
grief for the loss of your brave and too gallant son, my true friend and brother. 

" I had not known him long, but his soldierly qualities, his daring cour- 
age, his true-hearted friendship, his* genuine sympathies, his cultivated 
mind, his high moral tone, all combined to so win me to him, that he had 
twined himself about my heart with the cords of a brother's love. 

" The very expedition which resulted so unfortunately for him, made him 
all the more dear to me. Partly suggested by himself, he entered into the 
necessary preparations for it with such alacrity, cool judgment, and careful 
foresight, in all the details that might render it successful, as gave great 
promise of future usefulness in his chosen profession. When, in answer to 
his request to be permitted to go with it, I suggested to him that my cor- 
respondence was very heavy, and he would be needed at home, he play- 
fully replied : ' O general, we will all work extra hours, and make that up 
when we get back. The affair can't go on without me, you know.' The 
last words I heard him say before his good-night, when we parted, were, 
' If anything happens, I have given my mother's address to Mr. Green.' 
His last thoughts were with his mother ; his last acts were for his country 
and her cause. 

" T have used the words ' unfortunate expedition for him !' Nay, not so ; 
too fortunate thus to die doing his duty, his whole duty, to his country, as 
a hero, and a patriot. Unfortunate to us only who are left to mourn the 
loss to ourselves and our country. 

" Permit me, madam, in the poor degree I may, to take such a place in 
your heart that we may mingle our griefs, as we already do our love and 
admiration for him who has only gone before us to that better world where, 
through the ' merits of Him who suffered for us,' we shall all meet together. 
" Most sincerely and affectionately, 

"Yours, Benj. F. Butlee." 



152 



CONSEQUENCES OP GREAT BETHEL. 



It may not be improper to add to this just and affecting tribute, 
a note addressed by the sister of the deceased officer to Mrs. Butler : 

"Staten Island, June 10th, 1861. 

"Dear Mes. Butler: — I can not let this opportunity pass without ex- 
pressing my gratitude to you, and General Butler, for your great kindness 
to my dear brother, and for your tenderness to us in our grief. It is a great 
comfort to us to know that we have your sympathy ; to know that you 
valued Theodore, and appreciated him. We must always feel a warm 
friendship for you and yours, with whom he spent the last weeks of his life, 
the most eventful, the most useful, and the happiest, perhaps, he had ever 
spent. You know in some degree what we have lost, and I trust we shall 
one day meet as friends, and talk of things of the deepest interest to us, and 
which I am sure are not without interest to you. It does make us stronger 
to bear our sorrow, when we think of the cause for which our dear brother 
died ; a cause long dear to us all, and now far dearer than ever. I trust our 
country will be nobler and worthier than ever of our love, after this dark 
hour of trial is past. May she not have, like Rachel, to weep for many 
more of her children. Yet truth and freedom can not be too dearly bought, 
by blood and tears. 

u It is a great satisfaction to us to know from Theodore's letters, that 
some of the last acts of his life were kindnesses to an oppressed race, a race 
he never forgot, as a part of the Nation whose battle he fought. 

" My mother and sisters join with me in affectionate remembrances, and 
in the hope of expressing in person at some future time our heartfelt grati- 
tude, our interest and friendship for you as well as General Butler, whose 
eareer we watch with warm interest and admiration. Yours affectionately, 

"Laura "W. Johnson." 

I must not leave this melancholy subject without mentioning the 
noble, and, I believe, unique atonement made by General Pierce 
for whatever errors he may have committed at Great Bethel. He 
served out his term of three months in such extreme sorrow as 
almost to threaten his reason. He then enlisted as a private in a 
three years regiment, and served for some time in that honorable 
lowliness. Appointed, at length, to the command of a regiment, 
he served with distinction through the campaign of the peninsula, 
where, in one of the battles, he was severely wounded. 

General Butler, as we all remember, did not escape the censures 
of the press on this occasion. He was frequently favored with 
comments like the following : 

" Men can not be required to stand in front of a rampart, thirty 



CONSEQUENCES OF GEEAT BETHEL. 



153 



feet from the muzzles of mounted guns, loaded with grape, and 
canister, and musket-balls, doing nothing. When they are com- 
manded to march through fire, and reach the ditch, they must be 
provided with the means to cross it, or jump into it, and sticking 
their bayonets into the slope of the scarp, form with them ladders 
by means of which the more active can mount the parapet. But 
before men are sent into a position — recollecting that every ditch 
will be swept by a flank fire — they must not only be instructed in 
their duties, but supported by a steady fire upon the enemy. Ad- 
vantage must be taken of darkness or the weather ; false assaults 
must be made in conjunction with the true one, and so supported, 
too, that the false attack may, if circumstances favor it, be followed 
up and made the real one." 

Indeed, the great calamity of Bethel was, that it concealed from 
the country for a time the merit of the man who, more than most, 
was able to give it the service it needed. The country wanted a 
man who could not be scared by phantoms, and whose energy and 
talents could keep phantoms from growing into grim realities. The 
man was at hand, but imperfectly recognized. A complete success 
at Great Bethel, added to the fame of Baltimore and Annapolis, 
would have given General Butler a position before the country 
which could not have been disregarded. The failure there nearly 
cost him a rejection by the senate. He was saved by two votes 
only, and that bare majority he owed to the friendly exertions of 
that Colonel Baker whose life was squandered at Ball's Bluff. 
Colonel Baker had served with his regiment at Fortress Monroe. 

An interesting correspondence between General Butler and Colo- 
nel Magruder, shows us that the question of the exchange of pris- 
oners was not regarded as a difficult one, at that stage of the war, 
by either of those officers. Colonel Magruder had been an 
acquaintance of General Butler in happier times. They had last 
met, I believe, at a ball at Xewport : 

coloxel :maget~deb to gekeeal btttlee. 

" Head-Qtjaetees. Yoektowx, Viegtxia, June 12th, 1861, 
"Majoe-Geneeal B. F. Btjtlee, Commanding Fortress Monroe, &c. 

" Sie : — Our people had orders to bring any commnnications intended 
for the commander of the forces at 1 County Bridge' or Bethel to this place, 
and "by a particular route — hence the delay. 




154 



CONSEQUENCES OF GREAT BETHEL. 



" 1 understood from Captain Davies, the bearer of the flag, that you have 
four prisoners, to wit : One trooper and three citizens ; Messrs. Carter, 
Whiting, Lively and Mariam, the latter three being citizens of Virginia, in 
your possession ; and you state that you are desirous to exchange thein for 
a corresponding number of federal troops, who are prisoners with me. I 
accept your offer, so far as the trooper, who was a vidette, in question, and 
will send to-morrow, at four o'clock in the afternoon, if it will suit your 
convenience, a federal soldier in exchange for him. With respect to the 
wounded, my first care was to have them attended to. Medical advice and 
careful nursing have been provided, and your dead I had buried on the field 
of battle, and this was done in sight of the conflagration which was devas- 
tating the homes of our citizens. 

" The citizens in your possession are men who doubtless defended their 
homes against a foe who, to their certain knowledge, had, with or without 
the authority of the federal government, destroyed the private property- of 
their neighbors, breaking up even the pianos of the ladies, and committing 
depredations, numberless and of every description. The federal prisoners, 
if agreeable to you, will be sent to or near Hampton, by a sergeant, who 
will receive the vidette (Carter) who was captured by your troops. I dc 
not think a more formal proceeding necessary, you having but one pris- 
oner, and he not taken in battle. 

" If my proposition to deliver one federal prisoner at or near Hampton in 
charge of a sergeant, to be exchanged for private Carter, the captured vi- 
dette, be accepted, please inform me or the officer in command at Bethe^ 
church, and it shall be done. 

" It is scarcely necessary to say that the gentlemen who bear your flag 
have been received with every courtesy by our citizens, as well as our 
selves. I have the honor to be, 

" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

U J Bankhead Mageudee, Colonel Commanding " 

geneeal btjtlee to colonel mageudee. 

Head-Quaetees Depaetment of Vieglnla. 
Foeteess Moneoe, June 13^A, 1861. 
" Colonel J. B. Magettdee, Commanding Forces at Yorktown. 

" Sie : — Your favor of June 12, by Captain Davies, with a flag of truce, was 
this morning received. I desire first to thank you for the courtesy shown to 
the flag and its messengers. I will accept the exchange for private Carter- 
The two citizens, Whiting and Lively, were taken with arms in their hands, 
one of which was discharged from the house of Whiting upon the column 
of our troops when all resistance was useless, and when his attack was sim- 



CONSEQUENCES OF GREAT BETHEL. 



155 



ply assassination, and when no offense had been committed against him. 
The house from which this shot was fired, and a building which formed a 
part of your outpost are the only conflagrations caused by the troops un- 
der my command. And the light of these had ceased hours before your 
men ventured out from under their earthworks and ditches, to do us the 
courtesy of burying our dead, for which act you have my sincere thanks. 

" After our troops returned from the field — hours after — a building was 
burned which had furnished our wounded some shelter, and from which we 
had removed them, but not by our men. For your kind treatment of any 
wounded you may have, please accept my assurance of deep obligation, with 
the certainty that at any and every opportunity such courtesy and kindness 
will be reciprocated. I am sorry that an officer so distinguished in the ser- 
vice of the United States as yourself could for a moment suppose that the 
wanton destruction of private property would in any way be authorized or 
tolerated by the federal government and its officers, many of whom are your 
late associates. Even now, while your letter is being answered, and this is on 
its way to you, a most ignominious and severe punishment, in the presence 
of all the troops, is being inflicted upon men who had enlisted in the ser- 
vice of the United States — not soldiers — for plundering private property. 
All private property which would not, by the strictest construction, be con- 
sidered contraband of war, as means of feeding and aiding the enemy, 
which has been brought within my lines or in any way has come in the pos- 
session of my troops and discovered, with the strictest examination has been 
taken account of and collected together to be given to those peaceable 
citizens who have come forward to make claim for it. A board of survey 
has been organized, and has already reported indemnity for the property 
of peaceable citizens necessarily destroyed. In order to convince you that 
no wrong has been done to private property by any one in authority in the 
service of the United States, I do myself the honor to inclose a copy of a 
general order from this department, which will sufficiently explain itself. 
And the most active measures have been taken rigidly to enforce it, and to 
punish violations thereof. That there have been too many sporadic acts of 
wrong to private property committed by bad men under my command, I 
admit and most sincerely regret, and believe they will in the future be sub- 
stantially prevented ; and I mean they shall be repaired in favor of all loyal 
citizens so far as lies in my power. 

" You have done me the honor to inform me that vidette Carter is not a 
prisoner taken in battle. That is quite true. He was asleep on his post, 
and informs me that his three companions left in such haste that they neg- 
lected to wake him up. And they being mounted and my men on foot, 
the race was a difficult one. If it is not the intention of your authorities 
to treat the citizens of Virginia taken in actual conflict with the United 
States, as soldiers, in what light shall they be considered ? Please inform 
7* 



156 



CONSEQUENCES OF GREAT BETHEL. 



me in what light you regard them. If not soldiers, must they not be as- 
sassins ? 

" A sergeant of Captain Davies's command will be charged to meet your 
sergeant at four o'clock, at the village of Hampton, for the purpose of ex- 
change of private Carter. 

; 'I need not call your attention to the fact that there will be unauthor- 
ized acts of violence committed by those who are not sufficiently under re- 
straint of their commanding officers. !My men complain that the ambu 
lance having the wounded was fired into by your cavalry. And I am in- 
formed that if you have any prisoners, they were taken while engaged in 
pious duty to their wounded comrades, and not in battle. It has not oc- 
curred to my mind that either firing into the ambulance or capturing per- 
sons in charge of the wounded men was an act either authorized, recog- 
nized, or sanctioned by any gentleman in command of the forces in Virginia. 
Before this unhappy strife, I had not been so accastomed to regard the acts 
of my late associate citizens of the United States, and I have seen nothing 
in the course of this contest in the acts of those in authority, to lead me to 
a different conclusion. 

" I have the honor to be, most respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"Benj. F. Butleb, 
" Major- General Commanding United States Forces." 

General Butler learned the lesson first taught by the failure at 
Great Bethel, since repeated on so many disastrous fields. That 
lesson was, the utter insufficiency of the volunteer system as then 
organized, and the absolute necessity of officers morally and profes- 
sionally superior to the men under their command. The southern 
social system, at least, leads to the selection of officers to whom the 
men are accustomed to look up. Our officers, on the contrary, 
must have a real superiority, both of knowledge and of character, 
in order to bind a regiment into coherency and force. General 
Butler had under his command captains, majors and colonels who 
owed their election chiefly to their ability to bestow unlimited 
drinks. There were drunkards and thieves among them ; to say 
nothing of those who, from mere ignorance and natural inefficiency, 
30uld maintain over their men no degree whatever of moral or 
military ascendancy. The general saw the evil. In a letter to the 
secretary of war, June 26 th, he pointed out the partial remedy 
which was afterward adopted. 

" I desire," he wrote, " to trouble you upon a subject of the last 
importance to the organization of our volunteer regiments. Many 



CONSEQUENCES OF GREAT BETHEL. 



157 



of the volunteers, both two and three years men, have chosen their 
own company officers, and in some cases their field officers, and 
they have been appointed without any proper military examination 
before a proper board, according to the plan of organization of the 
volunteers. There should be some means by which these officers 
can be sifted out. The efficiency and usefulness of the regiment 
depend upon it. To give you an illustration : In one regiment I 
have had seven applications for resignation, and seventeen applica- 
tions for leave of absence ; some on the most frivolous pretexts, by 
every grade of officers under the colonel. I have yielded to many 
of these applications, and more readily than I should otherwise 
have done, because I was convinced that their absence was of 
benefit rather than harm. Still, this absence is a virtual fraud upon 
the United States. It seems as if there must be some method other 
than a court-martial of ridding the service of these officers, when 
there are so many competent men ready, willing, and eager to serve 
their country. Ignorance and incompetency are not crimes to be 
tried by court martial, while they are great misfortunes to an 
officer. As at present the whole matter of the organization is in- 
formal, without direct authority of law in its details, may not the 
matter be reached by having a board appointed at any given post, 
composed of three or five, to whom the competency, efficiency, and 
propriety of conduct of a given officer might be submitted ? And 
that upon the report of that board, approved by the commander 
and the department, the officer be dropped without the disgrace 
attending the sentence of a court-martial ?" 

' Meanwhile, the general labored most earnestly to raise the stand- 
ard of discipline in the regiments. The difficulty was great, 
amounting, at times, to impossibility. At one time there were 
thirty-eight vacancies among the officers of the New York regi- 
ments alone. The men, accustomed to active industry, and now 
compelled to endure the monotony of a camp, sought excitement in 
drink. It was, for some weeks, a puzzle at head-quarters where the 
soldiers obtained such abundant supplies of the means of intoxica- 
tion. " We used," said General Butler, in his testimony before the 
war committee, " to send a picket guard up a mile and a half from 
Fortress Monroe. The men would leave perfectly sober, yet every 
night when they came back we would have trouble with them on 
account of their being drunk. Where they got their liquor from 



158 



CONSEQUENCES OF GREAT BETHEL. 



we could not tell. Night after night, we instituted a rigorous 
examination, but it was always the same. Tbe men were examined 
over and over again ; their canteens were inspected, and yet we 
could find no liquor about them. At last it was observed that they 
seemed to hold their guns up very straight, and, upon examination 
being made, it was found that every gun-barrel was filled with 
whisky ; and it was not always the soldiers who did this." 

Further investigation disclosed facts still more distressing. An 
eye-witness reports : 

" General Butler ascertained that what was professedly the sut- 
ler's store of one of the regiments, was but a groggery. This he 
visited, and stove the heads of some half dozen barrels, and spilled 
all the liquor of every sort to be found. He found a book, in which 
the account with a single regiment was kept, which disclosed a 
state of things truly startling. Scarcely an officer of the regiment 
but had an open account, footing up for the single month amounts 
ranging from $10 to $1,000. The items charged, and the space of 
time within which the liquor was obtained, and, of course, con- 
sumed, was truly astonishing, and proved the depth of demoraliza- 
tion to which the officers, and, I fear, consequently, the entire regi- 
ment, had become reduced. I purposely suppress a narrative of 
the scenes of debauchery and violence in the camp at Newport 
News, where the regiment has lately been removed, a few evenings 
since, resulting in the shooting, if not the death, of a soldier, fired 
on by an officer while both were intoxicated. 

" General Butler having possessed himself of the book in ques- 
tion, went to Newport News yesterday afternoon, having previ- 
ously summoned all the commissioned officers of the regiment to 
meet him alone on the boat on his arrival. They came as sum- 
moned. General Butler told them frankly and pointedly what was 
the object of the meeting ; exhibited to them the evidence that was 
in his hands of the astonishing amounts of liquor which they as offi- 
cers had purchased ; pointed them to the consequences as seen in 
the demoralized condition of the regiments ; the late scenes of vio- 
lence, the waste of money, the injustice of such conduct toward 
New York, after she had been to the expense of giving them a lib 
eral outfit, and, with a princely liberality, was supporting so nianj 
of the families of soldiers and others ; and, more than all, the de 
plorable consequences that must ensue to the cause from such indul- 



CONSEQUENCES OF GREAT BETHEL. 



159 



gence. General Butler said there must and should be a stop put to 
it. He said he himself was not a total-abstinence man, but he 
pledged to the officers he addressed his word of honor as an officer 
and a man that, so long as he remained in this department, intoxi- 
cating drinks should be banished from his quarters, and that he 
would not use them except when medicinally prescribed ; and he 
wanted the officers present to give him their pledge that henceforth 
this should be the rule of their conduct. As he had determined to 
tell no man to go, where he could not say come, so, in this matter, 
he required no officer to do that which he would not first do him- 
self. General Butler enforced his views and the grounds of the de- 
termination he had formed feelingly and forcibly, and the affirm- 
ative response was unanimous, with only one exception, he being a 
captain, whose resignation Colonel Phelps announced was then in 
his hands, and which General Butler instantly accepted. 

" This interview over, General Butler directed Captain Davis, 
the provost-marshal, and his deputy, W. H. Wiegel, to proceed to 
search every place known to sell liquor, or suspected of being en- 
gaged in the traffic, and to destroy the same. Within one hour 
between twenty and thirty barrels of whisky, brandy, and other 
concoctions were emptied on the ground, amid the cheers of the 
soldiers. The proceeding elicited the warmest approbation of the 
whole camp, and especially of the men, who, as patrons of the sut- 
lers, had been swindled by them. The sutlers themselves, and all 
others guilty of having contributed to demoralize the troops, were 
taken into custody and brought to the fortress, and will be sent 
hence." 

General Butler's order on the subject of intoxicating drinks is too 
characteristic to be omitted. 

u Head-qtjaetees, Depaetment Vieginta, 

"Foet Moneoe, Ya., August 2, 1861. 
' Geneeal Oedee, No. 22. — The general commanding was informed on 
the first day of the month, from the books of an unlicensed liquor dealer 
near this post, and by the effect on the officers and soldiers under hi? com- 
mand, that the use of intoxicating liquors prevailed to an alarming- extent 
among the officers of his command. He had already taken measures to pre- 
vent its use among the men, but had presumed that officers and gentlemen 
might be trusted ; but he finds that as a rule, in some regiments, that as- 
sumption is ill-founded, while there are many honorable exceptions to this 



160 



CONSEQUENCES OF GREAT BETHEL. 



unhappy state of facts ; yet, for the good of all, some stringent measures 
upon the subject are necessary. 

" Hereafter, all packages brought into this department for any officer of 
whatever grade, will be subjected to the most rigid inspection ; and all spir- 
ituous and intoxicating liquors therein will be taken and turned over to the 
use of the medical department. Any officer who desires may be present at 
the inspection of his own packages. 

" ]STo sale of intoxicating liquor will be allowed in this department, and any 
citizen selling will be immediately sent out. 

•' If any officer finds the use of intoxicating liquor necessary for his health, 
or the health of any of his men, a written application to the medical direc- 
tor will be answered; and the general is confident that there is a sufficient 
store for all necessary purposes. 

" The medical director will keep a record of all such applications, the name 
of the applicant, date of application, amount and kind of liquor delivered, 
to be open at all times for public inspection. 

" In view of the alarming increase in the use of this deleterious article, the 
general earnestly exhorts all officers and soldiers to use their utmost exer- 
tions, both of influence and example, to prevent the wasting effects of this 
scourge of all armies. 

" The general commanding does not desire to conceal the fact that he has 
been accustomed to the use of wine and liquors in his own quarters, and to fur- 
nish them to his friends ; but as he desires never to ask either officers or men 
to undergo any privation which he will not share with them, he will not ex- 
empt himself from the operation of this order, but will not use it in his own 
quarters, as he would discourage its use in the quarters of any other officer. 
Amid the many sacrifices of time, property, health and life, which the offi- 
cers and soldiers of his command are making in the service of their country, 
the general commanding feels confident that this, so slight, but so necessa- 
ry a sacrifice of a luxury, and pandering to appetite, will be borne most 
cheerfully, now that its evil is seen and appreciated. 

" This order will be published by reading it at the head of every battalion, 
at their several evening parades. 

" By command of 

" Majoe-G-eneeal Btjtleb. 

"T.J. Haines, A. A. A. General." 

The whisky at Fortress Monroe inspired one piece of wit, which 
amused the command. This was the time when it was customary 
to "administer the oath" to arrested secessionists, and set them 
at liberty. A scouting party having brought in a rattlesnake, 
the question arose what should be done with it. A drunken 



\ 



CONSEQUENCES OF GREAT BETHEL. 



161 



soldier hiccoughed out: "d — n him, swear him in and let him 
go."* 

With equal vigor, General Butler made war upon a practice 
which no commanding officer has ever been able entirely to sup- 
press, that of plundering abandoned houses. The possession of a 
chair, a table, a piece of carpet, an old kettle, or even a piece of 
plank, adds so much to the comfort of men in camp, that the temp- 
tation to help themselves to such articles is sometimes irresistible. 
If any man could have prevented plundering, Wellington was that 
individual ; but he could not, though he possessed and used the 
power to hang offenders on the spot. Subsequent investigation proved 

* It also gave rise to the following correspondence: 

" Astoria, N. T., July 26, 1861. 
" General B. F. Butler — Sir : You are aware of the interest felt by the loyal people of this 
country in their army. Men and women are ready to do all in their power to sustain and encour- 
age the noble men who have gone forth to defend our country. This very day many of the ladies 
of this village have been seen hard at work making up garments and other things for hospital use. 
Our ladies here sent a large quantity of articles to Fort Monroe, and have others ready to send. I 
doubt not in other places thousands hav€ been similarly employed. This being the case, we feel 
that everything affecting the character of our army concerns us. A lady in the village has receiv- 
ed a letter from a soldier under your command, a reliable man, who says, one of the officers has 
been drunk a week. An army in which such conduct is tolerated, is of course demoralised. I 
felt it my duty as a citizen to inform you of the impression made by such a statement on all who 
hear it. Our cause is hopeless if such men are to hold office in our army, or if such cpnduct does 
not receive condign punishment. Most respectfully yours, 

" B. F. Stead, Pastor of the Presbyterian church, Astoria, L. V 

''Head-quarters, Department op Vkginia, July 29, 1861. 

" My dear Sir : Y our note received. I am pained by its contents. ' A reliable man says that 
an officer has been drunk for a week.' 

" I did not appoint this officer. I do not know who he is. I have no means of knowing unless 
the, ''reliable man 1 will complain of him to me. I do not ' tolerate' such conduct. Why did the 
people of his county, who must have known that officer's habits, allow him to be commissioned? 
Why did this reliable man vote for him ? 

"I have established a scrutiny over the packages sent to the men to have them cleared of li- 
quor given by misguiding friends : and have taken away to be turned over to hospital as many as 
one hundred and five packages of liquor a day from one express company. 

"I have assumed that the officers chosen and commissioned by the state of New York could be 
trusted to receive unopened packages from their friends. If in your judgment they can not be so 

isted, please apply to the governor, and upon his suggestion I will have the stores and boxes 
#nt to New York officers seized and searched. 

"No spirituous liquors are permitted to be sold within the lines in my department; and every 
barrel of whisky not under the charge of an officer, when there is reason to believe sales have been 
made, has been stove and contents spilled, and the seller sent out of the lines. I have no power 
to discharge a drunken or incompetent officer. I can only call a court-martial when charges are 
preferred. If I prefer charges 1 can not call a court. I assure you, sir, a court-martial is as un- 
wieldy a ma for investigating a certain class of offenses as a council of ministers would be. 
I have appeared before both tribunals as advocate, and know how difficult it is to convict in either. 

" But, sir, have the charges made, and the reliable man sent as a witness, and I will have the 
ethcer punished if possible. Thanking you for the interest you take in the case, 

" I am, most respectfully yours, Benjamin F. Butler." 



162 



CONSEQL ENCES OF GREAT BETHEL. 



that our troops around Fortress Monroe plundered little, consider- 
ing their opportunities and their temptation. But that little was 
disgraceful enough, and gave rise to much clamor. All that any 
man could have done to prevent and punish offenses of this nature 
was done by the commanding general.* No man abhorred plunder- 
'ng more than Colonel Phelps ; but he could not quite prevent it. 
Coming in to dinner one day, he saw upon the table a porcelain 
dish filled with green peas. He stood for a moment with eye* 
tixed upon the suspicious vessel, wrath gathering in his face. 

" Take that dish away," said he, in a tone of fierce command foi 
so gentle a man. 

The alarmed contraband prepared to obey, but ventured to ask 
what he should do with the peas. 

" Put them into a wash-basin, if you can't find anything better. 
But take that dish away, and never let me see it again." 

The dish was removed, and Colonel Phelps ordered it to be taken 
to the hospital for the use of the sick. 

One truth became very clear to General Butler while he held 
command in Virginia. It was, that men enlisted for short terms 
can not, as a rule, be relied upon for effective service. When the 
time of the three months men was half expired, all other feelings 
seemed to be merged in the longing for release. Like boys at 
school before the holidays, they would cut notches in a stick and 
erase one every day ; and, as the time of return home drew nearer, 

* The following order on this subject was issued during the first week of General Butler's com- 
mand : — 

" Head-Quarters, Department of Virginia, May 26, 1861. 

"The general in command of this department has learned with pain that there are instances 
of depredation on private property, by some persons who have smuggled themselves among the 
soldiers under his command. This must not and shall rot be. The rights of private property 
and of peaceable citizens must be respected. When the exigencies of the service require that 
private property be taken for public use, it must be done by proper officers, giving suitable 
Touchers therefor. It is made the special duty of every officer in command of any post of troops 
on detached service, or in camp, to exercise the utmost vigilance in this behalf, to cause all offend- 
ers in the matter of this order to be sent to head-quarters for punishment, and such measure of 
justice wili then be meted out to them as is due to thieves and plunderers. 

" If any corps shall share or aid in receiving such plundered property or offenders, such corps 
shall be dealt with in its organization in such a manner as to check such practices. 

"This order will be promulgated by being three times read with distinctness to each battalion 
at evening parade. 

"Any citizen at peace with the United States, despoiled in his person or property by any of the 
troops in this department, will confer a favor by promptly reporting the outrage to the nearest 
officer. 

" By order of 

"Ben j. F. Butler, Major- General (Jommaadinff.'" 



RECALL FROM VIRGINIA. 



163 



they would cut half a notch away at noon. It appeared that short- 
term troops are efficient for not more than half their time of en- 
listment; after that, the^r hearts are at home, not in their duty. 
The general was of opinion, that an army, if possible, should be 
enlisted not for any definite term, but for the war ; thus supplying 
the men with a most powerful motive for efficient action ; the home- 
ward path lying through victory over the enemy. 



CHAPTER IX. 

RECALL FROM VIRGINIA. 

The visitors attracted to the fortress severely taxed the time and 
hospitality of the general in command and of the gracious lady who 
presided at his table. Senators, representatives, governors, editors, 
officers, private persons, crowded that table to the number of thirty 
a day. Some enterprising individuals even projected grand excur- 
sions to the fortress, threatening it with steamboat loads of pleasure 
seekers. An order was issued to prevent such an untimely irrup- 
tion, and requiring a special permit to land. 

Mr. Russell of the London Times has given us an amusing record 
of his visit to the fortress. General Butler went the rounds with 
him. 

" The day," he reports, " was excessively hot, and many of the 
soldiers were lying down in the shade of arbors formed of branches 
from the neighboring pine wood, but most of them got up wheu 
they heard the general was coming round. A sentry walked up 
and down at the end of the street, and as the general came up to 
him he called out ' Halt.' The man stood still. 4 1 just want to 
show you, sir, what scoundrels our government has to deal with 
This man belongs to a regiment which has had new clothing recently 
served out to it. Look what it is made of.' So saying the general 
stuck his fore-finger into the breast of the man's coat, and with a 
rapid scratch of his nail tore open the cloth as if it was of blotting 
paper. ' Shoddy, sir. Nothing but shoddy. I wish 1 had these 
contractors in the trenches here, and if hard work would not make 



164 



KECALL SEOM VIRGINIA. 



honest men of them, they'd have enough of it to be examples for 
the rest of their fellows.' 

" In the course of our rounds we were joined by Colonel Phelps, 
who was formerly in the United States army, and saw service in 
Mexico, but retired because he did not approve of the manner in 
which promotions were made, and who only took command of a 
Massachusetts regiment because he believed he might be instru- 
mental in striking a shrewd blow or two in this great battle of 
Armageddon — a tall, saturnine, gloomy, angry-eyed, sallow man, 
soldier-like too, and one who places old John Brown on a level 
with the great martyrs of the Christian world. * * 

" 4 Yes, I know them well. I've seen them in the field. I've sat 
with them at meals. I've traveled through their country. These 
Southern slaveholders are a false, licentious, godless people. Either 
we, who obey the laws and fear God, or they, who know no God 
except their own will and pleasure, and know no law except theif 
passions, must rule on this continent : and I believe that Heaven 
will help its own in the conflict they have provoked. I grant you 
they are brave enough, and desperate too, but, surely justice, truth 
and religion, will strengthen a man's arm to strike down those who 
have only brute force and a bad cause to support them.' * * 

" In the afternoon the boat returned to Fortress Monroe, and 
the general invited me to dinner, where I had the pleasure of meet- 
ing Mrs. Butler, his staff, and a couple of regimental officers from 
the neighboring camp. As it was still early, General Butler pro- 
posed a ride to visit the interesting village of Hampton, which lies 
some six or seven miles outside the fort, and forms his advance 
post. A powerful charger, with a tremendous Mexican saddle, 
fine housings, blue and gold-embroidered saddle-cloth, was brought 
to the door for your humble servant, and the general mounted 
another, which did equal credit to his taste in horseflesh ; but I own 
I felt rather uneasy on seeing that he wore a pair of large brass 
spurs, strapped over white jean brodequins. He took with him his 
aide-de-camp and a couple of orderlies. In the precincts of the fort 
outside, a population of contraband negroes has been collected, 
whom the general employs in various works about the place, mili- 
tary and civil ; but I failed to ascertain that the original scheme oi 
a debit and credit account between the value of their labor and the 
cost of their maintenance had been successfully carried out.. The 



EE CALL FEOM VIEGINIA. 



165 



general was proud of them, and they seemed proud of themselves, 
saluting him with a ludicrous mixture of awe and familiarity as he 
rode past. ' How-do, Massa Butler ? How-do, general ?' accom- 
panied by absurd bows and scrapes. 4 Just to think,' said the gen- 
eral, 'that every one of these fellows represents some 1,000 dollars 
at least out of the pockets of the chivalry yonder.' 4 Nasty, idle, 
dirty beasts,' says one of the staff, sotto voce, 4 I wish to Heaven 
they were all at the bottom of the Chesapeake. The general insists 
on it that they do work, but they are far more trouble than they 
are worth.' 

"The road towards Hampton traverses a sandy spit, which, 
however, is more fertile than would be supposed from the soil 
under the horses' hoofs, though it is not in the least degree inter- 
esting. A broad creek or river interposed between us and the 
town, the bridge over, which had been destroyed. Workmen were 
busy repairing it, but all the planks had not yet been laid down or 
nailed, and in some places the open space between the upright 
rafters allowed us to see the dark waters flowing beneath. The 
aide said, 4 1 don't think, general, it is safe to cross ;' but his chief 
did not mind him until his horse very nearly crashed through a 
plank, and only regained its footing with unbroken legs by marvel- 
ous dexterity ; whereupon we dismounted, and, leaving the horses 
to be carried over in the ferry-boat, completed the rest of the 
transit, not without difficulty. ****** 

" Most of the shops were closed ; in some the Ihutters were still 
down, and the goods remained displayed in the windows. 4 1 have 
allowed no plundering,' said the general ; 1 and if I find a fellow 
trying to do it, I will hang him as sure as my name is Butler. See 
here,' and as he spoke he walked into a large woolen-draper's shop 
where bales of cloth were still lying on the shelves, and many arti- 
cles, such as are found in a large general store in a country town, 
were disposed on the floor or counters ; 4 they shall not accuse the 
men under my command of being robbers.' The boast, however, 
was not so well justified in a visit to another house occupied by 
some soldiers. 4 Well,' said the general, with a smile, 4 1 dare say 
you know enough of camps to have found out that chairs and 
tables are irresistible ; the men will take them off to their tents, 
though they may have to leave them next morning.' 

44 Having inspected the works — as far I could judge, too extend 



166 



EEC ALL FEOM VIRGINIA. 



ed, and badly traced — which I say with all deference to the able 
young engineer who accompanied us to point out the various 
objects of interest — the general returned to the bridge, where we 
remounted, and made a tour of the camps of the force intended to 
defend Hampton, falling back on Fortress Monroe in case of neces- 
sity. Whilst he was riding ventre d terre, which seems to be his 
favorite pace, his horse stumbled in the dusty road, and in his effort 
to keep his seat the general broke his stirrup-leather, and the pon- 
derous brass stirrup fell to the ground ; but, albeit a lawyer, he 
neither lost his seat nor his sang froid, and calling out to his 
orderly " to pick up his toe-plate," the jean slippers were closely 
pressed, spurs and all, to the sides of his steed, and away we went 
once more through dust and heat so great that 1 was by no means 
sorry when he pulled up outside a pretty villa, standing in a 
garden, which was occupied by Colonel Max Weber, of the Ger- 
man Turner regiment, once the property of General Tyler. * * 

" The shades of evening were now falling, and as I had been up 
before five o'clock in the morning, I was not sorry when General 
Butler said, ' Now we will go home to tea, or you will detain the 
steamer.' He had arranged before I started that the vessel, which, 
in ordinary course, would have returnee to Baltimore at eight 
o'clock, should remain till he sent down word to the captain to go. 

" We scampered back to the fort, and judging from the chal- 
lenges and vigilance of the sentries, and inlying pickets, I am not 
quite so satisfied that the enemy could have surprised the place. 
At the tea-table there were no additions to the general's family ; 
he therefore spoke without any reserve. Going over the map, he 
explained his views in reference to future operations, and showed 
cause, with more military acumen than I could have expected from 
a gentleman of the long robe, why he believed Fortress Monroe 
was the true base of operations against Richmond. * * * 

" But whilst the general and I are engaged over our maps and 
mint juleps,* time flies, and at last I perceive by the clock that it is 
time to go. An aide is sent to stop the boat, but he returns ere I 
leave with the news that ' She is gone.' Whereupon the general 
sends for the quartermaster, Talmadge, who is out in the camps, 
and only arrives in time to receive a severe ' wigging.' It so hap- 
pened that I had important papers to send off by the next mail 

* This visit occurred before the promulgation of the liquor order. 



\ 



RECALL FROM VIRGINIA. 



161 



from New York, and the only chance of being able to do so de t - 
pended on my being in Baltimore next day. General Butler acted 
with kindness and promptitude in the matter. 8 1 promised you 
should go by the steamer, but the captain has gone off without 
orders to leave, for which he shall answer when I see him. Mean- 
time it is my business to keep my promise. Captain Talmadge, 
you will^ at once go down and give orders to the most suitable 
transport steamer or chartered vessel available, to get up steam at 
once, and come up to the wharf for Mr. Russell.' " 

A steamer was prepared, the general's promise was kept, and 
Mr. Russell reached Washington in time to witness the final prep- 
arations for the advance upon Richmond, by way of Manassas. 

The battle that ensued ended General Butler's hopes of being 
useful at Fortress Monroe. It was on the very day of the battle 
of Bull Run that he first received the means of moving a battery of 
field artillery, and of completing his preparations for sweeping clear 
of armed rebels the Virginia tip of the peninsula, of which Maryland 
forms the greater part. Colonel Baker was to command the ex- 
pedition. Two days after the retreat came a telegram from Gene- 
ral Scott : " Send to this place without fail, in three days, four 
regiments and a half of long-term volunteers, including Baker's 
regiment and a half." The troops were sent, and the expedition 
was necessarily abandoned. 

The news of the great defeat created at the fortress a degree of 
consternation almost amounting to panic ; for, at once, the rumor 
spread that the victorious enemy were about to descend upon the 
fortress, and overwhelm it. General Butler was not alarmed at 
this new phantom. One of the first cheering voices that reached 
the administration was his. A few hours after reading the news, 
he wrote to his friend, the postmaster-general : 

" We have heard the sad news from Manassas, but are neither 
dismayed nor disheartened. It will have the same good effect 
upon the army in general that Big Bethel has had in my division, 
to teach us wherein we are weak and they are strong, and how to 
apply the remedy to our deficiences. Let not the administration 
be disheartened or discouraged. Let no compromises be made, or 
wavering be felt. God helping, we will go through to ultimate 
assured success. But let us have no more of the silk glove in 
carrying on this war. Let these men be considered, what they have 



168 



.RECALL FROM VIBGLNIA. 



made themselves, 4 our enemies,' and let their property of all kinds, 
whenever it can be useful to us, be taken on the land where they 
have it, as they take ours upon the sea where we have it. There 
seems to me now but one of two ways, either to make an advance 
from this place with a sufficient force, or else, leaving a simple 
garrison here, to send six thousand men that might be spared on 
the other line ; or, still another, to make a descent upon the southern 
coast. I am ready and desirous to move forward in either." 

In another part of this letter he strongly recommends Colonel 
Phelps for promotion : " Although some of the regular officers will, 
when applied to, say that he is not in his right mind — the only evi- 
dence I have seen of it, is a deep religious enthusiasm upon the 
subject of slavery, which, in my judgment, does not unfit him to 
fight the battles of the North. As I never had seen him until he 
came here, as he differs with me in politics, I have no interest in 
the recommendation, save a deliberate judgment for the good of the 
cause after two months of trial." He had soon after the pleasure 
of handing to Colonel Phelps the shoulder straps of a brigadier- 
general. 

" I am as much obliged to you, general," said he, " as though you 
had done me a favor." 

The withdrawal of go large a number of his best troops, com- 
pelled the evacuation of Hampton. He was even advised, and 
that, too, by a member of the cabinet, as well as by many officers 
high in rank at the post, to abandon Newport News ; but he would 
not let go his hold upon a point so important to the future move- 
ment which he had advised. The evacuation of Hampton was the 
event which called forth his well-known letter to the secretary of 
war upon the disposition of the contrabands. 

GENEEAL BUTLEE TO ME. CAMEEON. 

" Head-Quaetees, Depaetment OF Vieginia, 
" Foeteess Honeoe, July 30, 1861. 
" Hon. Simon Camebon, Secretary of War : 

" Sie : — By an order received on the morning of the 26th July from Major- 
G-eneral Dix, by a telegraphic order from Lieutenant- General Scott, I was 
commanded to forward, of the troops of this department, four regiments 
and a half, including Colonel Baker's California regiment, to Washington, 
vid Baltimore. This order reached me at 2 o'clock a. m., by special boat 
from Baltimore. Believing that it emanated because of some pressing exi- 



RECALL FROM VIRGINIA. 



J<)9 



gency for the defense of Washington, I issued my orders before daytvr e»ak 
for the embarkation of the troops, sending those who were among thovery 
best regiments I had. In the course of the following day they were all em- 
barked for Baltimore, with the exception of some four hundred, for whom 
I had not transportation, although I had all the transport force in the hands 
of the quartermaster here to aid the bay line of steamers, which, by the 
same order from the lieutenant-general, was directed to furnish transpor- 
tation. Up to, and at the time of the order, I had been preparing for an 
advance movement, by which I hoped to cripple the resources of the enemy 
at Yorktown, and especially by seizing a large quantity of negroes who 
were being pressed into their service in building the intrenchments there. 
I had five days previously been enabled to mount, for the first time, the 
first company of light artillery, which I had been empowered to raise, and 
they had but a single rifled cannon, an iron six-pounder. Of course, every- 
thing must and did yield to the supposed exigency and the orders. This 
ordering away the troops from this department, while it weakened the 
posts at Newport News, necessitated the withdrawal of the troops from 
Hampton, where I was then throwing up intrenched works to enable me 
to hold the town with a small force, while I advanced up the York or James 
Eiver. In the village of Hampton there were a large number of negroes, 
composed in a great measure of women and children of the men who had 
fled thither within my lines for protection, who had escaped from maraud- 
ing parties of rebels who had been gathering up able-bodied blacks to aid 
them in constructing their batteries on the James and York Kivers. I had 
employed the men in Hampton in throwing up intrenchments, and they 
were working zealously and efficiently at that duty, saving our soldiers from 
that labor under the gleam of the mid-day sun. The women were earning 
substantially their own subsistence in washing, marketing, and taking care 
of the clothes of the soldiers, and rations were being served out to the men 
who worked for the support of the children. But by the evacuation 
Hampton, rendered necessary by the withdrawal of troops, leaving me 
scarcely five thousand men outside the fort, including the force at Newport 
News, all these black people were obliged to break up their homes at Hamp- 
ton, fleeing across the creek within my lines for protection and support. 
Indeed, it was a most distressing sight to see these poor creatures, who had 
trusted to the protection of the arms of the United States, and who aided 
the troops of the United States in their enterprise, to be thus obliged to 
flee from their homes, and the homes of their masters who had deserted 
them, and become fugitives from fear of the return of the rebel soldiery, 
who had threatened to shoot the men who had wrought for us, and to carry 
off the women who had served us, to a worse than Egyptian bondage. I 
have, therefore, now within the peninsula, this side of Hampton Creek, 
nine hundred negroes, three hundred of whom are able-bodied men , thirty 



170 



RECALL FROM VIRGINIA. 



of whom are men substantially past hard labor, one hundred and seventy- 
five women, two hundred and twenty-five children under the age of ten 
years, and one hundred and seventy between ten and eighteen years, and 
many more coming in. The questions which this state of facts present are 
very embarrassing. 

" First. What shall be done with them? and, Second. What is their state 
and condition ? 

" Upon these questions I desire the instructions of the department. 

" The first question, however, may perhaps be answered by considering the 
last. Are these men, women, and children slaves ? Are they free ? Is 
their condition that of men, women, and children, or of property, or is it a 
mixed relation ? What their status was under the constitution and laws, we 
all know. What has been the effect of a rebellion and a state of war upon 
that status ? When I adopted the theory of treating the able-bodied negro 
fit to work in the trenches as property liable to be used in aid of rebellion, 
and so contraband of war, that condition of things was in so far met, as I 
then and still believe, on a legal and constitutional basis. But now a new 
series of questions arise. Passing by women, the children, certainly, can 
not be treated on that basis ; if property, they must be considered the in- 
cumbrance rather than the auxiliary of an army, and, of course, in no pos- 
sible legal relation could be treated as . contraband. Are they property ? 
If they were so, they have been left by their masters and owners, deserted, 
thrown away, abandoned, like the wrecked vessel upon the ocean. Their 
former possessors and owners have causelessly, traitorously, rebelliously, 
and, to carry out the figure, practically abandoned them to be swallowed 
up by the winter storm of starvation. If property, do they not become 
the property of the salvors ? But we, their salvors, do not need and will 
Qot hold such property, and will assume no such ownership : has not, 
therefore, all proprietary relation ceased ? Have they not become, there- 
upon, men, women, and children ? JSf o longer under ownership of any kind, 
the fearful relicts of fugitive masters, have they not by their masters' acts, 
and the state of war, assumed the condition, which we hold to be the nor- 
mal one, of those made in God's image * Is not every constitutional, legal, 
and moral requirement, as well to the runaway master as their relinquished 
slaves, thus answered ? I confess that my own mind is compelled by this 
reasoning to look upon them as men and women. If not free born, yet 
tree, manumitted, sent forth from the hand that held them never to be re- 
3laimed. 

Of course, if this reasoning, thus imperfectly set forth, is correct, my duty 
as a humane man is very plain. I should take the same care of these men, 
women, and children, houseless, homeless, and unprovided for, as I would 
of the same number of men, women, and children, who, for their attach- 
ment to the Union, had been driven or allowed to flee from the Confederate 



RECALL FEOM VIRGINIA. 



171 



States. I should have no doubt on this question, had I not seen it stated 
that an order had been issued by General McDowell in his department, sub- 
stantially forbidding all fugitive slaves from coming within his lines, or be- 
ing harbored there. Is that order to be enforced in all military depart- 
ments ? If so, who are to be considered fugitive slaves ? Is a slave to be 
considered fugitive whose master runs away and leaves him ? Is it forbid- 
den to the troops to aid or harbor within their lines the negrO children who 
are found therein, or is the soldier, when his march has destroyed their 
means of subsistence, to allow them to starve because he has driven off the 
rebel masters ? Now, shall the commander of a regiment or battalion sit 
in judgment upon the question, whether any given black man has fled from 
his master, or his master fled from him? Indeed, how are the free born to 
be distinguished? Is one any more or less a fugitive slave because he has 
labored upon the rebel intrenchments ? If he has so labored, if I under- 
stand it, he is to be harbored. By the reception of which are the rebels 
most to be distressed, by taking those who have wrought all their rebel 
masters desired, masked their battery, or those who have refused to labor 
and left the battery unmasked ? 

U I have very decided opinions upon the subject of this order. It does 
not become me to criticise it, and I write in no spirit of criticism, but sim- 
ply to explain the full difficulties that surround the enforcing it. If the 
enforcement of that order becomes the policy of the government, I, as a 
soldier, shall be bound to enforce it steadfastly, if not cheerfully. But if 
left to my own discretion, as you may have gathered from my reasoning, 
I should take a widely different course from that which it indicates. 

" In a loyal state, I would put down a servile insurrection. In a state of 
rebellion I would confiscate that which was used to oppose my arms, and 
take all that property which constituted the wealth of that state, and fur- 
nished the means by which the war is prosecuted, beside being the cause 
of the war ; and if, in so doing, it should be objected that human beings 
were brought to the free enjoyment of life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap- 
piness, such objection might not require much consideration. 

" Pardon me for addressing the secretary of war directly upon this ques- 
tion, as it involves some political considerations as well as propriety of mili- 
tary action. I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

''Benjamin I\ Btttlee," 

ME. CAMEEON TO GENEEAL BTTTLEE. 

"Washington, August 8, 1861. 
" Genekal : — The important question of the proper disposition to be made 
of fugitives from service in the states in insurrection against the federal 
government, to which you have again directed my attention, in your letter 

8 



172 



RECALL FROM VIRGINIA. 



of July 30, has received my most attentive consideration. It is the desire 
of the president that all existing rights in all the states be fully respected 
and maintained. The war now prosecuted on the part of the federal gov- 
ernment is a war for the Union, for the preservation of all the constitu- 
tional rights of the states and the citizens of the states in the Union ; hence 
no questioA can arise as to fugitives from service within the states and 
territories in which the authority of the Union is fully acknowledged. The 
ordinary forms of judicial proceedings must be respected by the military 
and civil authorities alike for the enforcement of legal forms. But in the 
states wholly or in part under insurrectionary control, where the laws of 
the United States are so far opposed and resisted that they can not be effec- 
tually enforced, it is obvious that the rights dependent upon the execution 
of these laws must temporarily fail ; and it is equally obvious that the rights 
dependent on the laws of the states within which military operations are 
conducted must necessarily be subordinate to the military exigencies created 
by the insurrection, if not wholly forfeited by the treasonable conduct of 
the parties claiming them. To this the general rule of the right to service 
forms an exception. The act of Congress approved August 6, 1861, de- 
clares if persons held to service shall be employed in hostility to the United 
States, the right to their services shall be discharged therefrom. It follows 
of necessity that no claim can be recognized by the military authority of the 
Union to the services of such persons when fugitives. 

" A more difficult question is presented in respect to persons escaping from 
the service of loyal masters. It is quite apparent that the laws of the state 
under whicli only the services of such fugitives can be claimed must needs 
be wholly or almost wholly superseded, as to the remedies, by the insur- 
rection and the military measures necessitated by it ; and it is equally ap- 
parent that the substitution of military for judicial measures for the enforce- 
ment of such claims must be attended by great inconvenience, embarrass- 
ments, and injuries. Under these circumstances, it seems quite clear that 
the substantial rights of loyal masters are still best protected by receiving 
such fugitives, as well as fugitives from disloyal masters, into the service 
of the United States and employing them under such organizations and in 
such occupations as circumstances may suggest or require. Of course a 
record should be kept showing the names and descriptions of the fugitives, 
the names and characters, as loyal or disloyal, of the masters, and such 
facts as may be necessary to a correct understanding of the circumstances 
of each case. 

" After tranquillity shall have oeen restored upon the return of peace, 
congress will doubtless properly provide for all the persons thus received 
into the service of the Union, and for a just compensation to loyal masters. 
In this way only, it would seem, can the duty and safety of the government 
and just rights of all be fully reconciled and harmonized. You will there- 



RECALL FROM VIRGINIA. 



173 



fore consider yourself instructed to govern your future action in respect to 
fugitives from service by the premises herein stated, and will report from 
time to time, and at least twice in each month, your action in the premises 
to this department. You will, however, neither authorize nor permit any 
interference by the troops under your command with the servants of peace- 
able citizens in a house or field, nor will you in any manner encourage such 
servants to leave the lawful service of their masters, nor will you, except in 
cases where the public good may seem to require it, prevent the voluntary 
return of any fugitive to the service from which he may have escaped. 
1 am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"Simon Cameeon, Secretary of War." 

Mr. Cameron handled the topic gingerly. The administration 
had not yet taken off" its gloves. 

General Butler's letter pleased most the party most opposed to 
the one with which he had been all his life identified. We find 
M*. Lewis Tappan writing to him applaudingly, and the general 
replying in a friendly spirit. He wrote to Mr. Tappan, August 10th : 

" I have the honor to acknowledge the many kind expressions of 
approbation of my acts. I have endeavored to do my duty, follow- 
ing the best light I have, and the event must be in the hands of 
Him who ordereth all things well. I am of opinion, that it would 
not be profitable to the negroes to be sent north. There is plenty 
of waste land for them here, and they can be better and more 
cheaply cared for here than amid the rigor of our northern winter. 

" They are at present, in my judgment, earning the subsistence 
furnished them by the United States, and if any benevolent in- 
dividual desires to show active sympathy in their behalf, I would 
recommend that the committee you suggest, furnish a number of 
suits of substantial cheap clothing fit for winter service, for the women 
and children. Shoes are especially desirable. I will see that such 
clothing is distributed among them according to their necessities. 
The clothing for the men will soon be worn out, and as you are 
aware, we have no supply. Many of them are now dressed in the 
cast-off clothing and uniforms of the soldiers. 

" This is all the particular aid, I think, we are in a situation to 
receive for them at this time. 

" To send them north, amid the stagnation of business, and at a 
season when all agricultural operations, except harvesting, are 
about to be suspended, to fill our towns with a new influx of 



174 



RECALL FROM VIRGINIA. 



people, where labor is not wanted, while here in Virginia there is 
land enough cultivated, and houses enough deserted, amid scenes 
to which they are attached, where they may live, would in my 
judgment, be unwise. 

"If the war continues, they will be safe here. If the war ends, 
the wisdom and the care of the government will be exerted for 
their protection here or elsewhere. This part of the state is but 
little more cultivated than in the days of Powhattan ; and it would 
seem hardly prudent to take away from it a class of mostly agri- 
cultural laborers, who are fitted to the soil. 

" The most of them would not desire to go north, if they can 
be assured (as I can assure them) of their safety at the south. I 
shall continue to receive and protect all the negroes, especially 
women and children, who come to me, as well for reasons of 
humanity as for strategical policy, of which it is not now best to 
speak." 

The southern people, it is worth remarking, had already shown 
their sense of General Butler's services to his country. They knew v 
their enemy. It has been their cue to compliment some of the 
generals conspicuous in the service of the United States ; but for 
him, who first established the rule of employing the courtesies 
which mitigate the horrors of war, they have had only vitupera- 
tion. They were right in their instinctive perceptions, for he was 
also the first to recognize them as enemies incurable, whose destruc- 
tion as a power was essential to the restoration of the country. 
Few readers can have forgotten the biography of General Butler 
which circulated in southern newspapers in these months. It ran 
thus : 

" He is the son of a negro barber, who, early m the century, did 
business on Poydras street, in New Orleans. The son, in early 
manhood, emigrated to Liberia, where an indisposition for labor 
and some talent turned his attention to the bar, to prepare for 
which he repaired to Massachusetts. Having mastered his profes- 
sion, he acquired a fondness for theological studies, and became an 
active local preacher, the course of his labors early leading him to 
New York, where he attracted the notice of Mr. Jacob Barker, 
then in the zenith of his fame as financier, and who, discovering 
the peculiar abilities in that direction of the young mulatto, sent 
him to northern New York to manage a banking institution. There 



EE CALL FROM TIRGINTA. 



175 



he divided his time between the counting-house and the court-room, 
the prayer-meeting and the printing-office," etc. 

This, with a variety of comments, was the southern response to 
Annapolis and Baltimore. 

The North seemed slower to recognize his services. After the 
withdrawal of the four regiments, he found himself in a false posi- 
tion at Fortress Monroe, incapable of acting, yet expected by the 
country to act. His embarrassment was not diminished by discov- 
ering that the intention to remove his troops was known and pub- 
lished before the battle of Bull Run, and that they were still 
detained at Baltimore inactive. 

" As soon," he wrote to Colonel Baker, " as I began to look like 
activity, my troops are all taken away. And almost my only 
friend and counselor, on whose advice I could rely, is taken away 
by name. * * * * What ought I to do under these 
circumstances ? I ought not to stay here and be thus abused. Tell 
me as a true friend, as I know you are, what ought to be done in 
justice to myself To resign, when the country needs service, is un- 
patriotic. To hold office which government believes me unfit for, is 
humiliating. To remain here disgraced and thwarted by every 
subordinate who is sustained by the head of the department, is un- 
bearable." 

The government resolved his doubts. A day or two after the 
reply to General Butler's contraband letter had been dispatched, he 
was removed from the command of the department, and General 
Wool appointed in his stead. Whether the two acts had any con- 
nection, or whether the removal was a compliance with the sugges- 
tions of a leading newspaper, has not been disclosed. " General 
Wool," commented the New York Times, " is assigned the com- 
mand of Fortress Monroe. So far, so good. The nation was 
deeply dissatisfied, not to say indignant, at the fact that one of the 
bravest, as well as one of the most skillful and experienced of 
American generals, was persistently kept in quiet retreat at Troy, 
N. Y., while political brigadiers were fretting away the spirit of 
the army by awkward blundermgs upon masked batteries." There 
had, indeed, been much clamor of this kind, and worse. One gal- 
lant colonel, removed from his command for drunkenness, had 
caused letters to be published, accusing General Butler of disloy- 
alty. Other officers, who had left the service for the service's good, 



176 



HATTER AS. 



were not silent, and one or two reporters, who had been ordered 
away from the post, still had the use of their pens. "Nor had the 
public the means of understanding the causes of General Butler's 
inactivity. They saw the most important military post in the pos- 
session of the United States, apparently well supplied with troops, 
contributing nothing to the military strength of the country. .The 
blame was naturally laid at the door of the general commanding it. 

On the eighteenth of August, General Butler gracefully resigned . 
the command of the department to his successor. In his farewell 
order he said : " The general takes leave of the command of the 
officers and soldiers of this department with the kindest feelings 
toward all, and with the hope that in active service upon the field, 
they may soon signalize their bravery and gallant conduct, as they 
have shown their patriotism by fortitude under the fatigues of camp 
duty. No personal feeling of regret intrudes itself at the change in 
the command of the department, by which our cause acquires the 
services in the field of the veteran general commanding, in whose 
abilities, experience and devotion to the flag, the whole country 
places the most implicit reliance, and under whose guidance and 
command all of us, and none more than your late commander, are 
proud to serve." 

He had been in command of the department of Virginia two 
months and twenty-seven days. 



CHAPTER X. 

HATTERAS. 

The order which relieved General Butler from command in Vir- 
ginia assigned him to no other duty. He was simply ordered to 
resign his command to General Wool. Whether he was to remain 
at the fortress, or repair to head-quarters, or go home, was left to 
conjecture. What should he do? Where should he go? Friends 
unanimously advised : ' Go home. The government plainly inti- 
mates that it does not want you.' The game is lost ; throw up your 



HATTERAS. 



177 



hand. " No," said he, " whatever I do, I can't go home. That 
were the end of my military career, and I am in for the war." It 
ended in his asking General Wool for something to do ; and Gen- 
eral Wool, who could not but see what efficient service he had ren- 
dered at the post, and heartily acknowledged it, gave him the com- 
mand of the volunteer troops outside the fortress.* So he vacated 
the mansion within the walls, and served where he had been wont 
to rule. 

A week after, the expedition to reduce the forts at Hatteras Inlet 
was on the point of sailing. It was a scheme of the general's own. 
A Union prisoner being detained at the inlet, had brought the 
requisite information to the fortress many weeks before. He said, 
that through that gap in the long sand-island which runs along the 
coast of North Carolina, numberless blockade runners found access 
to the main land. His report being duly conveyed to head-quarters, 
a joint expedition, military and naval, was ordered to take the forts, 
destroy them, block up the inlet with sunken stone, and return to 
Fortress Monroe. Preparations for this expedition were at full tide 
when General Butler was superseded. Nine hundred troops were 
detailed to accompany it ; a small corps for a major-general. Gen- 
eral Butler volunteered to command them, and General Wool ac- 
cepted his offer ; kind friends Whispering, ." infra digP 

He went. Every one remembers the details of that first cheering 
success after the summer of bur discontent. It seemed to break 
the spell of disaster, and gave encouragement to the country, dispro 
portioned to the magnitude of the achievement. General Butler 
enjoyed a share of the eclat, which restored much of the public favor 
lost at Great Bethel. 

Two points of the general's conduct on this occasion, we may 
notice before passing on to more stirring scenes. The reader has 
not forgotten, that the rebel commander first offered to surrender, 
provided the garrison were allowed to retire, and that General But- 

* 11 Head-quarters, Department of Virginia, 
" Fortress Monroe, Virginia, August 21, 1861. 

''Special Orders, No. 9. 

" Major-Oorvral B. F. Butler is, hereby placed in command of the volunteer forces in this depart- 
ment, exclusive of those at Fort Monroe. His present command at Camps Butler and Hamilton 
will include the First, Second, Seventh, Ninth, and Twentieth regiments, the battalion of Massa- 
chusetts volunteers, the Union Coast Guard, and the Mounted Eifles. 

"C. C. Churchill, Acting Assistant Adjutant-General. 

" By command of Major-General Wool." 



178 



HATTEEAS. 



ler refused the terms, demanding unconditional surrender. " The 
Adelaide," he reports, " on carrying in the troops, at the moment 
my terms of capitulation were under consideration by the enemy, 
had grounded upon the bar. * * At the same time, the Harriet 
Lane, in attempting to enter the bar had grounded, and remained 
fast ; both were under the guns of the fort. By these accidents, a 
valuable ship of war, and a transport steamer, with a large portion 
of my troops, were within the power of the enemy. I had demand- 
ed the strongest terms, which he was considering. He might re- 
fuse, and seeing our disadvantage, renew the action. But I deter- 
mined to abate not a tittle of what I considered to be due to the 
dignity of the government ; nor even to give an official title to the 
officer in command of the rebels. Besides, my tug was in the inlet, 
and, at least, I could carry on the engagement with my two rifled 
six-pounders, well supplied with Sawyer's shell." It was an anx- 
ious moment, but his terms were accepted, and the victory was 
complete. 

One of the guns of the Minnesota was worked during the action 
by contrabands from Fortress Monroe. The danger was slight, 
for the enemy's balls fell short. But it was observed and freely 
acknowledged on all hands, that no gun in the fleet was more 
steadily served than theirs, and no men more composed than they 
when danger was supposed to be imminent. In action and out of 
action their conduct was everything that could be desired. 

The other matter which demands a word of explanation, relates 
to General Butler's sudden return from Hatteras, which elicited 
sundry satirical remarks at the time. He had been ordered not to 
hold but to destroy the port. But on surveying the position, he was so 
much impressed with the importance of retaining it, that he resolved 
to go instantly to Washington and explain his ^views to the gov- 
ernment. He did so, and the government determined to hold the 
place. Nor was haste unnecessary, since supplies had been brought 
for only five days. The troops must have been immediately with- 
drawn or immediately provisioned. 

And now again he was without a command. The government 
did not know what to do with him, and he did not know what to 
do with himself. Recruiting was generally at a stand still, and there 
were no troops in the field that had not their full allowance of 
major generals. West Point influence was in the ascendant, as 




RECRUITING FOR SPECIAL SERVICE. 



179 



surely it ought to be in time of war ; and this lawyer in epaulets 
seemed to be rather in the way than otherwise. 



CHAPTER XL 

RECRUITING FOR SPECIAL SERVICE. 

General Butler now recalled the attention of the government 
to his scheme for expelling rebel forces from the Virginia penin- 
sula, which had been suspended by the sudden transfer of Colonel 
Baker and his command from Fortress Monroe. He obtained 
authority from the war department to recruit troops in Massachu- 
setts for this purpose. Recruiting seemed to be proceeding some- 
what languidly in the state, although her quota was yet far from 
full ; and it was supposed, that General Butler could strike a vein 
of hunker democrats which would yield good results. Not that 
hunker democrats had been backward in enlisting; but it was 
thought that many of them who still hesitated would rally to the 
standard of one who had so often led them in the mimic war of 
elections. On going home, however, he found that General Sher- 
man was before him in special recruiting, and that to him Gover- 
nor Andrew had promised the first regiments that should be com- 
pleted. He hastened back to Washington. He had been engaged 
to speak in Faneuil Hall, but left a note of excuse, ending with 
these words : " That I go for a vigorous prosecution of the war is 
best shown by the fact that I am gone." At Washington, a change 
of programme. He penned an order, dated Sept. 10th, enlarging 
his sphere of operations to all New England, which the secretary 
of war signed : — 

"Major-General B. F. Butler is hereby authorized to raise, or- 
ganize, arm, uniform, and equip a volunteer force for the war, in 
the New England states ; not exceeding six (6) regiments of the 
maximum standard, of such arms, and in such proportions, and in 
such manner as he may judge expedient ; and for this purpose his 
orders and requisitions on the quartermaster, ordnance, and other 
8* 



180 



RECRUITING FOR SPECIAL SERVICE. 



staff departments of the army, are to be obeyed and answered: 
provided the cost of such recruitment, armament, and equipment 
does not exceed, in the aggregate, that of like troops, now or here- 
after raised, for the service of the United States." 

To make assurance doubly sure, he asked the additional sanction 
of the president's signature. The cautious president, always punc- 
tiliously respectful to state authority, first procured by telegraph 
the assent of all the governors of ISTew England, and then signed 
the order. 

It was upon General Butler's return to New England to raise 
these troops, that the collision occurred between himself and the 
governor of Massachusetts, which caused so much perplexity to all 
the parties concerned. Without wishing to revive the ill feeling of 
a controversy between gentlemen equally devoted to the common 
cause, it appears, nevertheless, unavoidable to explain the point of 
collision. At first, I was inclined to think that General Butler, in 
the impetuosity of his desire to take the field, had given the gover- 
nor just cause of offense. Upon a review of the whole case, as 
published in divers pamphlets, ofiicial and unofficial, it appears 
clearly enough, that Governor Andrew was justified in taking of- 
fense ; but it is equally clear that no offense was intended by Gene- 
ral Butler ; and that, hurried as he was, he employed reasonable 
means to come to a friendly understanding with the governor. 
The case, as I understand it, illustrates the old Spanish maxim, that 
when two honest men differ, both are in the right. 

Perhaps, there was already a slight soreness in the governor's 
mind owing to the publication by General Butler of the corres- 
pondence relating to the offer of Massachusetts troops to Governor 
Hicks, for the suppression of an insurrection of the slaves. General 
Butler published these letters, because the Boston correspondent 
of the Tribune had informed the public that Governor Andrew dis- 
approved the offer of the troops for such a purpose. The act was 
also freely commented upon in the newspapers. A question arose 
as to the source of the correspondent's information. General But- 
ier emphatically exonerated the governor, but intimated that, per- 
haps, some clerk or copyist had betrayed his trust. The private 
secretary of the governor, who alone had charge of the governor's 
papers, conceived that this intimation was pointed at him, and re- 
sented it accordingly. A private secretary, posted as he is close to 



EECRTnTISrOr FOE SPECIAL SERVICE. 



181 



the ear of his chief, can not but have considerable influence over 
him. A private secretary has sometimes been a governor's gover- 
nor, a general's general, a prime minister's prime minister. Private 
secretaries have ruled empires. It is, at least, not desirable to have 
the ill-will of a private secretary if you wish to stand well with his 
chief. You might almost as well slight the king's mistress, and 
then ask a favor of the king. I do not suppose that the worthy 
and patriotic governor of Massachusetts was unduly influenced by 
his secretary. But he is a human being, and his secretary felt ag- 
grieved at General Butler. 

The true cause of the difficulty was the chaos that reigned in the 
war department at Washington Mr. Cameron was a faithful and 
most laborious minister ; but probably no man ever existed capa- 
ble of really doing the work suddenly accumulated upon the sec- 
retary of war by the stupendous 8cale upon which the military 
operations of the government were undertaken. We did not em- 
brace the war as the settled business of the country for years, but 
as if preparing for two or three enormous raids into an enemy's 
country. Hurry, confusion, incoherence, marked all our first pro- 
ceedings. Mr. Cameron did what he could ; but much remained 
undone ; much was done amiss ; much was necessarily left to sub- 
ordinates. There was no time for deliberation ; everything had to 
be decided on the instant. In such circumstances, a man must have 
the memory of a Butler to avoid giving contradictory orders. It 
should be also noted, that General Butler is one of those gentle- 
men who can say ISTo, with delightful promptness and unmistakable 
emphasis, but to whom it is difficult to say ISTo ; and both the 
president and the secretary of war were disposed to comply 
with the desires of a man whose talents and energy they appre- 
ciated. 

General Sherman, as we have said, was already in Massachusetts 
recruiting for Port Royal. Another gentleman had also received 
authority from the war department to raise a regiment in Massa- 
chusetts. The governor objecting to this special recruiting, re- 
monstrated, and the secretary promised, August 28, that no m^re 
such authorizations should be issued. The president, also, Septem- 
ber 6th, spoke of " the impossibility of relying upon the states te 
respond promptly to regular requisitions for troops, if their recruit 
ing system should be harassed by the competition of individ.iaJ* 



182 



RECRUITING FOR SPECIAL SERVICE. 



engaged in recruiting under independent permissions ; but he said 
such independent permissions as had hitherto been issued, had been 
extorted by the pressure of certain persons, who, if they had been 
refused, would have accused the government of rejecting the ser- 
vices of so many thousands of imaginary men ; a pressure, of the 
persistency of which, no person not subjected to it could conceive. 
He said that perhaps he had been in error in granting such inde- 
pendent permissions at all, even under this pressure." 

Hence, before sanctioning General Butler's scheme of raising six 
regiments in New England, the president procured by telegraph 
the consent of all the governors. 

Now, the point of collision between Governor Andrew and Gen- 
eral Butler was this : The governor desired to fill the regiments 
already begun before any others were started; the general was 
anxious to open his vein of hunkers at once, and avail himself im^ 
mediately of his personal popularity. He thought he could enlist 
men who would not join regiments already begim ; and he was 
right ; for more than a thousand men enlisted under his banner as 
soon as it was set up. 

When General Butler presented himself at the State House, 
September 14th, armed with authority to raise six regiments in 
New England, Governor Andrew received him with all his wonted 
cordiality, and promised hearty co-operation. He requested, how- 
ever, that he would announce no new regiments till General Sher- 
man's were filled, which would require another week. The general 
consented and went to Maine, where his efforts, promptly seconded 
by the governor of that State, were immediately successful. He 
returned to Boston, to find that Governor Andrew had caused a 
formal order to be published, which forbade new recruiting until 
regiments already begun were completed. Two of these incom- 
plete regiments he had, indeed, assigned to General Butler, one of 
which existed only in skeleton. General Butler fearing delay, and 
desiring himself to have a voice in selecting the officers who were 
to accompany him, hit upon an expedient to remove the unexpected 
obstacle. He flew to Washington, and to General Scott. Result, 
the following order : 

" The six New England States will temporarily constitute a sepa- 
rate military department, to be called the Department of New Eng- 
land. Head-quarters, Boston. Major-General B. F. Butler, United 



RECRUITING FOR SPECIAL SERVICE. 



188 



States Volunteer Service, while engaged in recruiting his division 
will command." 

Next he went to Mr. Cameron, who signed an order giving half 
a month's pay in advance to all troops enlisted by General Butler 
for special service. 

Surely, thought the general, all is right now. Returning to New 
England, he again set to work, published his new powers, adver- 
tised for recruits, opened offices, established camps. His activity 
was wonderful. One day we see him addressing a legislature; 
the next conferring with a governor ; anon, haranguing the troops, 
then, consulting with officers ; now in Vermont, to-morrow in Maine, 
the next day in New Hampshire. Men nocked in. In a month he 
would have been ready to march but for one powerful opposing in- 
fluence, which emanated from the state house at Boston. Governor 
Andrew, wedded to his own system, puzzled and indignant at the 
contradictory orders from Washington, would not sanction the 
proceedings of General Butler, but opposed them by all the means 
he could command. Endless perplexity and recrimination followed ; 
the governor, by telegraph and by letter, remonstrating with the 
department of war ; Mr. Cameron standing in torment between two 
fires, vainly endeavoring to quiet the governor by real applause 
and apparent concession ; the Massachusetts senators mediating ; 
the president putting in a conciliatory word now and then; Gen- 
eral Butler keeping steadily to his object of getting the six regi- 
ments ready in the shortest possible time, pausing a moment to 
dictate a hurried reply to voluminous remonstrance, then rushing 
away to a remote camp, always under a full head of steam. 

While the unhappy difference was still capable of adjustment, 
General Butler asked an interview with the governor, thinking that 
a few minutes' frank conversation could hardly fail to bring them 
to friendly co-operation. Unhappily, Governor Andrew, being 
exceedingly pressed by business, declined the interview, naming no 
time when he could accord one. The tongue is an unruly member ; 
but the pen, too, is a mischievous implement ; it is a tongue free 
from the restraints imposed by the presence of the person ad- 
dressed. One of General Butler's letters, couched in most respect- 
ful language, gave extreme offense to the governor, through an 
error of the copyist. It was written in the third person, and the 
governor was designated by the words " His Excellency," which 



184 



RECRUITING FOR SPECIAL SERVICE. 



occurred fourteen times. The person who made the copy sent to 
the governor, with perverse uniformity, placed inverted commas 
before and after those words, as if to intimate that the author of 
the letter used them reluctantly, and only in obedience to a custom. 
It looked like an intentional and elaborate affront, and served to 
embitter the controversy. When, at length, the general was made 
acquainted with the mishap, he was not in a humor to give a com- 
plete explanation ; nor, indeed, is it a custom with him to get out 
cf a scrape by casting blame upon a subordinate.* 

Time did not heal the breach. The governor refused to issue 
commissions to the officers recommended by General Butler. Many 
offensive things were said and done on both sides, and the quarrel 
soon escaped from the state house into the newspapers ; from news- 
papers into pamphlets. Let us draw a veil over these painful 
scenes. A quarrel is divided into two parts. Part first embraces 
all that is said and done while both parties keep their temper : part 
second, all that is said and done after one or both of the parties 
loses it. The first part may be interesting, and even important ; 
the second is sound and fury, signifying nothing. Governor An- 
drew felt that General Butler was interfering with his prerogative. 
General Butler, intent on the work in hand, was exasperated at the 
obstacles thrown in his way by Governor Andrew. General But- 
ler, who had had bitter experience of subaltern incompetency, was 
anxious to secure com missions to men in whom he could confide. 
Governor Andrew naturally desired to give commissions to men 
in whose fitness he could himself believe. General Butler's friends 
were chiefly of the hunker persuasion ; Governor Andrew was 
better acquainted with gentlemen of his own party. Both were 
honest and zealous servants of their country. Long may both of 
them live to serve and honor it. 

The six thousand troops were raised. But the delay in Massa- 
chusetts deprived General Butler of the execution of his peninsula 
scneme, which fell to the lot of General Dix, who well performed it 
in November. So General Butler went to Washington to learn 
what he was to do with his troops, now that he had them. 

For many months the government had been silently preparing for 
the recovery of the southern strongholds, which had been seized at 

* This explanation of the much-disenssed quotation points, I derived from a confidential men* 

o«r of General Butlers staff, the late General Strong. 



RECRUITING FOR SPECIAL SERVICE. 



18£ 



the outbreak of the war, while the last administration was holding 
parley with treason at the capital. Commodore Porter was busy 
at the Brooklyn Navy Yard with his fleet of bomb-boats. The 
navy had been otherwise strengthened, though the day of iron-clads 
had not yet dawned in Hampton Roads. Immense provision had 
been ordered of the cumbrous material used in sieges. But, as yet, 
preparations only had been made ; the points first to be attempted 
had not been selected ; the chief attention of the government being 
still directed to the increase and organization of the army of the 
Potomac, held at bay by the phantom of two hundred thousand 
rebels, and endless imaginary masked batteries at Manassas. The 
arrival of General Butler at Washington recalled the consideration 
of the government to more distant enterprises. 

Mobile was then the favorite object, both at the head-quarters of 
the army and at the navy department ; and General Butler was 
directed to report upon the best rendezvous for an expedition 
against Mobile. Maps, charts, gazetteers, encyclopedias, and sea 
captains were zealously overhauled. In a day or two, the general 
was ready with his report, which named Ship Island as the proper 
rendezvous for operations against any point upon the gulf coast. 
Ship Island it should be then. To New England the general 
quickly returned, and started a regiment or two for the rendezvous 
under General Phelps, whose services he had especially asked. Then 
to Washington once more, where he found that Mobile was not in 
high favor with the ruling member of the cabinet, who thought 
Texas a more immediately important object. It was natural that 
he should so regard it, as he was compelled by his office to look at 
the war in the light shed from foreign correspondence. General 
Butler was now ordered to prepare a paper upon Texas, and the 
best mode of reannexing it. Nothing loath, he rushed again at 
the maps and gazetteers, collaring stray Galvestonians by the way- 
An elaborate paper upon Texas was the prompt result of his labors, 
a production justly complimented by General McClellan for its lucid 
completeness. Texas was in the ascendant. Texas should be re. 
annexed ; the French kept out ; the German cotton planters deliv- 
ered ; the rebels quelled ; the blockading squadron released. Home- 
ward sped the general to get more of his troops on the way. The 
Constitution, which had conveyed General Phelps to Ship Island 
and returned, was again loaded with troops. Two thousand men 



186 



RECB CITING FOR SPECIAL SERVICE. 



were embarked, and the ship was on the point of sailing, when a 
telegram from Washington arrived of singular brevity : — 
" Don't Sail. Disembark." 

~No explanation followed ; nor did General Butler wait long for 
one. The next day he was in Washington, in quest of elucidation. 
The explanation was simple. Mason and Slidell were in Fort 
Warren ; England had demanded their surrender ; war with 
England was possible, not improbable. If war were the issue, the 
Constitution would be required, not to convey troops to Ship Island, 
but to bring back those already there. 

Nothing remained for General Butler but to return home, and 
wait till the question was decided. He went, but not till he had 
avowed his entire conviction that justice and policy united in de- 
manding that the rebel emissaries should be retained. He thought 
that New England alone, drained as she was of men, would follow 
him to Canada, that winter, with fifty thousand troops, and seize 
the commanding points before the April sun had let in the English 
navy. The country, he thought, was not half awake — had not put 
forth half its strength. He felt that in such a quarrel, America 
would do as Greece had done when Xerxes led his myriads against 
her — every man a soldier, and every soldier a hero. He did not 
despair of seeing, first the border states, and then the gulf states, 
fired with the old animosity, and joining against the hereditary foe. 
Knowing what England had done in the way of violating the flag 
of neutrals, he regarded her conduct in this affair as the very sub- 
lime of impudence. He boiled with indignation whenever he 
thought of it, and he thought of little else during those memorable 
weeks. 

Fortunately, as most of us think, other counsels prevailed at 
Washington, and a blow was struck at the rebellion, by the sur- 
render of the men, of more effect than the winning of a great bat- 
tle. The restoration of the Union will itself avenge the wrong, 
and cut deeper into the power that has misled England than the 
loss of many Canadas. 

The dispute with the governor continued. It was a question 
whether the troops raised by him in Massachusetts, in opposition 
to the governor, would be entitled to the aid granted by the legis- 
lature to the families of volunteers. The following letter touches 
uoon this subject : 



RECRUITING FOR SPECIAL SERVICE. 



18? 



" Camp Sewakd, Pittsfield, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 1862. 
' 4 wi Ool. Whelden, Commanding Western Bay State Regiment : 

" Coponel : — I have been much gratified with the appearance, discipline 
and proficiency of your regiment, as evidenced by the inspection of to-day. 
Of tne order, quiet, and soldierly conduct of the camp, the commanding 
general cannot speak in too much praise. 

"Notwithstanding the difficulties of season, opposition and misrepre- 
sentation, the progress made would be creditable if no such obstacles had 
existed. 

u In the matter of the so-called state aid to the families of the volunteers 
under your command, I wish to repeat here, most distinctly, the declara- 
tion heretofore made to you. I will personally, and from my private 
means, guarantee to the family of each soldier the aid which ought to be 
furnished to him by his town, to the same extent and amount that the 
state would be bound to afford to other enlisted men, from and after this 
date, if the same is not paid by the commonwealth to them as to other 
Massachusetts soldiers ; and all soldiers enlisting in your regiment may do 
so upon the strength of this guarantee. 

"I have no doubt upon this subject whatever. The commonwealth will 
not permit her soldiers to suffer or be unjustly dealt with, under whose- 
soever banner they may enlist. 

" The only question that will be asked will be, Are these men in the 
service of their country, shedding their blood in defense of its constitution 
and laws ? If so, they stand upon an equality with every other man who 
is fighting for his country, and will be treated by the state with the same 
equal justice, whatever may be the wounded pride or overweening vanity 
of any man or set of men. 

"I love and revere the justice, the character, the equity, the fame and 
name of our glorious old commonwealth too much to doubt of this for a 
moment, and will at any time peril whatever I may have of private 
fortune, upon the faith engendered by that love and reverence. 

" Accept for yourself, personally, and for your officers, my most earnest 
thanks for the energetic services which you have rendered in the recruit 
ment of your excellent regiment. 

"Most truly your friend, 

"Benj. F. Btjtlee, 
" Major- General Commanding " 

General Butler was, indeed, most ably seconded by the officers 
whom he had selected to accompany him. 

Captain Paul R. George, of Lowell, a retired officer of the army, 
distinguished in the Mexican war, afterward successful in business, 



188 



RECRUITING FOR SPECIAL SERVICE. 



was his quartermaster. To the remarkable talents and long expe- 
rience of Captain George, the country owed it, that the expedition 
was fitted out with unrivaled completeness and economy, affording 
another proof that a man who conducts his own affairs wisely, can 
serve the public with the same energetic tact. Captain George for- 
sook ease and luxury to aid General Butler, and labored for many 
weeks in the details of the equipment with admirable assiduity and 
skill. A cabal caused his rejection by the senate before the last de- 
tachment sailed, and the general was thus deprived of assistance 
upon which he had relied, and which he needed then more than 
ever. 

General Butler was most fortunate, too, in his chief of staff, 
Major George C. Strong, a graduate of West Point ; one of those 
cadets who had marked and liked the ways of the Massachusetts law- 
yer, when he served as an examiner of the military academy. He 
met the general in Washington — being a lieutenant then upon the 
staff of the commander-in-chief, and gladly left all to follow his for- 
tunes. His West Point comrades marveled that an officer so 
clearly in the way of promotion, high in the confidence of the chief 
of the army, should choose to serve under a general not trained to 
arms in the highlands of the Hudson river. But there are people 
who know a man when they see one. West Point, however, is right 
in pluming itself upon its graduates, for no one can deny that most 
of the good soldiering done in this war, on either side, has been 
done under West Point men. How well General Strong appreci- 
ated the merits of the military academy, we may now all see in 
his pleasant little book, " Cadet Life at West Point," the author 
ship of which he modestly concealed during his lifetime. But he 
was not a West Point bigot. 

Happy, too, was General Butler in the aid of Lieutenant Weit- 
zel, chief engineer to the expedition, who graduated second in his 
class at West Point ; afterward long employed in completing the 
forts below Xew Orleans, acquiring perfect familiarity with the 
adjacent country. He, too, reflected honor upon the military acad- 
emy, as he has recently done upon the country, by his splendid con- 
duct at Port Hudson. General Butler, in common with his whole 
command, held the character and talents of Lieutenant Weitzel in 
the profoundest esteem. 

One of the volunteer aids stands boldly out from the group sur- 



RECRUITING FOR SPECIAL SERVICE 



189 



rounding the general, Major J. M. Bell, of Boston, a distinguished 
member of the bar of New England, son-in-law and partner of the 
late Rufus Choate. Major Bell, who had, I believe, retired from 
practice, asked his old hunker chieftain, if there was any work for 
him to do in the new, mysterious enterprise. General Butler hailed 
the offer with gladness, well knowing the worth and capacity of 
him who made it. Major Bell found unexpected work in the south- 
ern country, which forced him to furbish his legal weapons, and 
keep them exceedingly bright. 

Colonel Andrew Jackson Butler, as chief commissary, lent a pow- 
erful and a dexterous hand to the equipment of the expedition, till 
he, too, was rejected by the senate. Captain Peter Haggerty, 
whom we saw going ashore at Annapolis, was still by the general's 
side, as aide-de-camp. Lieutenant J. B. Kinsman, another Boston 
lawyer, joined at the last moment, for a six weeks' cruise, but 
served to the end. We shall meet those gentlemen again, and their 
comrades on the general's staff. It is here only requisite to note, 
that if the expedition was fitted out with extraordinary dispatch 
and thoroughness, it was because General Butler, himself a mighty 
achiever, knows how to pick out from the mass of indifferent men 
the individuals who have it in them to achieve. This is the supreme, 
the all-including talent of a commander. A little of that talent, the 
United States, three years ago, might have paid one thousand mil 
iions of dollars for, and yet saved money by the operation. 

Mason and Slidell were given , up. The troops sailed for Fortress 
Monroe. General Butler, early in January, 1862, went to Wash 
ington to conclude the last arrangements, intending to join his 
command in Hampton Roads. At the war department mere con- 
fusion reigned, for this was the time when Mr. Cameron was going 
out, and Mr. Stanton coming in. Nothing could be done ; the 
troops remained at Fortress Monroe ; the general was lost to finite 
view in the mazes of Washington. 

We catch a brief glimpse of him, however, testifying before the 
committee on the conduct of the war. No reader can have for- 
gotten that the great question then agitating the country was, why 
General McClellan, with his army of two hundred thousand men, 
had remained inactive for so many months, permitting the blockade 
of the Potomac, and allowing the superb weather of November 
and December to pass unimproved into the mud and cold of Janu- 



190 



RECRUITING FOR SPECIAL SERVICE. 



ary. The established opinion at head-quarters was, that thb rebei 
army before Washington numbered about two hundred and forty 
thousand men. Upon this point General Butler, from much study 
of the various sources of information, had arrived at an opinion 
which differed from the one in vogue, and this he communicated 
to the committee ; and not the opinion only, but the grounds of 
the opinion. He presented an argument on the subject, having 
thoroughly got up the case as he had been wont to do for gentle- 
men of the jury. Subjecting General Beauregard's report of the 
two actions near Manassas to a minute analysis, he showed that the 
rebel army at the battle of Bull Run numbered 36,600 men. He 
cross-examined those reports, counting first by regiments, secondly 
by brigades, and found the results of both calculations the same. 
He then computed the quotas of the various rebel states, and con- 
cluded that the entire Confederate force on the day of the battle 
of Bull Run was about 54,000. He next considered the increase 
to the rebel armies since the battle of Bull Run. We, with our 
greatly superior means of transportation, with our greater popula- 
tion, and the command of the ocean, had been able, by the most 
strenuous exertions, to assemble an army before Washington of 
little more than 200,000. Could the rebels have got together 
half that number in the same time ? It was not probable, it was 
scarcely possible. Then the extent of country held by the rebel 
army was known, and forbade the supposition entertained at head- 
quarters. Upon the whole, he concluded that the armies menacing 
Washington consisted of about 70,000 men ; which proved to be 
within 5,000 of the truih. 

This opinion was vigorously pooh-poohed in the higher circles of 
the army, but leading members of the committee were evidently 
convinced by it. One officer of high rank, a frequenter of the office 
of the general-in-chief, was good enough to say, when General But- 
ler had finally departed, that he hoped they had now found a hole 
big enough to bury that Yankee general in. 

During the delay caused by the change in the department of 
war, an almost incredible incident occurred, which strikingly illus- 
trates the confusion sometimes arising from having three centers of 
military authority — the president, the secretary of war, and the 
commander-in-chief. By mere accident General Butler heard one 
day that his troops had been sent, two weeks before, from Fortress 



RECRUITING FOR SPECIAL SERVICE. 



191 



Monroe to Port Royal. "What!" he exclaimed, "have T been 
played with all this time ?" He discovered, upon inquiry, thai 
such an order had indeed been issued. He procured an intervie w 
with Mr. Stanton, gave him a history of his proceedings, and asked 
an explanation of the order. Mr. Stanton knew nothing about it ; 
Mr. Cameron knew nothing about it ; General McClellan knew 
nothing about it. Nevertheless, the order in question had reall} 
been sent. Mr. Stanton readily agreed, to countermand the order, 
provided the troops had not already departed. The general hur- 
ried to the telegraph office, where, under a rapid fire of messages, 
a still more wonderful fact was disclosed. The mysterious order 
had been received in Baltimore by one of General Dix's aids, who 
had put it into his pocket, forgotten it^ and carried it about with 
him two weeks! From the depths of his pocket it was finally 
brought to light. The troops were still at the fortress. 

Mr. Stanton soon made himself felt in the dispatch of business. 
General Butler obtained an ample hearing, and the threads of his 
enterprise were again taken up. One day (about January 10th), 
toward the close of a long conference between the general and 
the secretary, Mr. Stanton suddenly asked : 

" Why can't New Orleans be taken ?" 

The question thrilled General Butler to the marrow. 

" It can !" he replied. 

This was the first time New Orleans had been mentioned in Gen- 
eral Butler's hearing, but by no means the first time he had thought 
of it. The secretary told him to prepare a programme ; and for 
the third time the general dashed at the charts and books. General 
McClellan, too, was requested to present an opinion upon the feasi- 
bility of the enterprise. He reported that the capture of New Or- 
leans would require an army of 50,000 men, and no such number 
could be spared. Even Texas, he thought, should be given up for 
the present. 

But now General Butler, fired with the splendor and daring of 
the new project, exerted all the forces of his nature to win for it the 
consent of the government. He talked New Orleans to every mem- 
ber of the cabinet. In a protracted interview with the president, 
he argued, he urged, he entreated, he convinced. Nobly were his 
efforts seconded by Mr. Fox, the assistant secretary of the navy, a 
native of Lowell, a schoolmate of General Butler's. His whole 



192 



RECRUITING FOE SPECIAL SEEYICE. 



heart was in the scheme. The president spoke, at length, the deci- 
sive word, and the general almost reeled from the White House in 
the intoxication of his relief and joy. One difficulty still remained, 
and that was the tight clutch of General McClellan upon the troops. 
At Ship Island there were 2,000 men; on ship-board 2,200 ; ready 
in New England, 8,500 ; total, 12,700. General Butler demanded 
a total of 15,000. As the general-in-chief would not hear of sparing 
men from Washington, three of the Baltimore regiments were 
assigned to the expedition ; and these were the only ones in Gene- 
ral Butler's division which could be called drilled. Not one of 
his regiments had been in action. 

About January 23d, the last impediment was removed, and Gen- 
eral Butler went home, for the last time, to superintend the em- 
barkation of the rest of the New England troops. The troops 
detained so long at Fortress Monroe, were hurried on board the 
Constitution, and started for Ship Island. Other transports were 
rapidly procured; other regiments dispatched. A month later, 
General Butler was again in Washington to receive the final orders ; 
the huge steamship Mississippi, loaded with his last troops, lying 
in Hampton Roads, waiting only for his coming to put to sea. It 
may interest some readers to know, that the total cost of raising 
the troops and starting them on their voyage, was about a million 
and a half of dollars. 

It was not without apprehensions that General Butler approached 
the capital on this occasion — there had been so many changes of 
programme. But all the departments smiled propitiously, and the 
final arrangements were soon completed. A professional spy, who 
had practiced his vocation in Virginia too long for him to venture 
again within the enemy's lines with much chance of getting out 
again, was on his way to New Orleans, having agreed to meet the 
general at Ship Island with a full account of the state of affairs in 
the crescent city. A thousand dollars, if he succeeds. The depart- 
ment of the gulf was created, and General Butler formally placed 
in command of the same. The following were the orders of tue 
commander-in-chief : 

" Head-qtjakteks of the Aemt, 
" February 2'Zd, 1862. 
" Major- General B. F. Butler, United States Army : 

" General :— You are assigned to the command of the land forces <ie»- 



RECRUITING FOE. SPECIAL SERVICE. 



193 



tined to co-operate with the navy in the attack upon New Orleans. You 
will use every means to keep the destination a profound secret, even from 
yonr staff officers, with the exception of your chief of staff, and Lien- 
tenant Wietzel, of the engineers. 

u The force at yonr disposal will consist of the first thirteen regiments 
named in yonr memorandum handed to me in person, the Twenty-first In- 
diana, Fourth Wisconsin, and Sixth Michigan (old and good regiments 
from Baltimore) — these three regiments will await your orders at Fort 
Monroe. Two companies of the Twenty-first Indiana are well drilled at 
heavy artillery. The cavalry force already en route for Ship Island, will he 
sufficient for your purposes. After full consultation with officers well ac- 
quainted with the country in which it is proposed to operate, I have ar- 
rived at the conclusion that three light batteries fully equipped and one 
without horses, will be all that will be necessary. 

"This will make your force about 14,400 infantry, 275 cavalry, 580 ar- 
tillery, total 15,255 men. 

" The commanding general of the department of Key West is authorized 
to loan you, temporarily, two regiments ; Fort Pickens can probably give 
you another, which will bring your force to nearly 18,000. The object of 
your expedition is one of vital importance — the capture of New Orleans. 
The route selected is up the Mississippi river, and the first obstacle to be 
encountered, perhaps the only one, is in the resistance offered by Forts 
St. Philip and Jackson, It is expected that the navy can reduce the works ; 
in that case, you will, after their capture, leave a sufficient garrison in them 
to render them perfectly secure ; and it is recommended that on the up- 
ward passage a few heavy guns and some troops be left at the pilot sta- 
tion, at the forks of the river, to cover a retreat in the case of a disaster, 
the troops and guns will of course be removed as soon as the forts are 
captured. 

" Should the navy fail to reduce the works, you will land your forces and 
siege train, and endeavor to breach the works, silence their fire, and carry 
them by assault. 

" The next resistance will be near the English Bend, where there are 
ome earthen batteries ; here it may be necessary for you to land your 
roops, to co-operate with the naval attack, although it is more than proba 
ble that the navy, unassisted, can accomplish the result. If these works are 
taken, the city of New Orleans necessarily falls. 

" In that event it will probably be best to occupy Algiers with the mass 
of your troops, also the eastern bank of the river above the city — it may be 
necessary to place some troops in the city to preserve order ; though if 
there appears sufficient Union sentiment to control the city, it may be best 
for purposes of discipline to keep your men out of the city. 

" After obtaining possession of New Orleans, it will be necessary to re- 



194 RECRUITING FOR SPECIAL SERVICE. 

auce all the works guarding its approaches from the east, and particularly 
to gain the ManchacPass. 

" Baton Rouge, Berwick Bay, and Fort Livingston will next claim your 
attention. 

" A feint on Galveston may facilitate the objects we have in view. I 
need not call your attention to the necessity of gaining possession of all the 
rolling stock you can, on the different railways, and of obtaining control of 
the roads themselves. The occupation of Baton Rouge, by a combined 
naval and land force, should be accomplished as soon as possible after you 
have gained New Orleans; then endeavor to open your communication 
with the northern column of the Mississippi, always bearing in mind the 
necessity of occupying Jackson, Mississippi, as soon as you can safely do so, 
either after or before you have effected the junction. Allow nothing to 
divert you from obtaining full possession of all the approaches to New Or- 
leans. When that object is accomplished to its fullest extent, it will be 
necessary to make a combined attack on Mobile, in order to gain possession 
of the harbor and works, as well as to control the railway terminus at the 
city. In regard to this, I will send more detailed instructions, as the opera- 
tions of the northern column develop themselves. I may simply state that 
the general objects of the expedition are first, the reduction of New Orleans 
and all its approaches, then Mobile, and all its defenses, then Pensacola, 
Galveston, etc. It is probable that by the time New Orleans is reduced, it 
will be in the power of the government to re-enforce the land forces suffi- 
ciently to accomplish all these objects ; in the mean time you will please 
give all the assistance in your power to the army and navy commanders 
in your vicinity, never losing sight of the fact that the great object to be 
achieved is the capture and firm retention of New Orleans. 
" Very respectfully, yOur obedient servant, 

" Geokge B. McOlellait, 
Major- General Commanding, &c, <£c." 

February 24th was General Butler's last day in Washington. 

" Good-by, Mr. President. We shall take New Orleans, or 
you'll never see me again." 

Mr. Stanton : " The man that takes New Orleans is made a lieu- 
tenant-general." 

February 25th, at nine in the evening, the steamship Mississippi 
sailed from Hampton Roads, with General Butler and his staff, anr* 
fourteen hundred troops on board. Mrs. Butler, the brave and 
kind companion of her general in all his campaigns hitherto, was 
still at his side on the quarter-deck of the Mississippi. Except him 
self Mai or Strong, and Lieutenant Wietzel, no man in the ship, 



SHIP ISLAND. 



195 



and no man on the island to which they were bound, knew the 
object of the expedition. Articles and maps had appeared in the 
Herald, calculated to lead the enemy to suppose that New Orleans, 
if attacked at all, would be attacked from above, not from the gulf. 
The northern public were completely in the dark ; no one even 
guessed New Orleans. 



CHAPTER XII. 

SHIP ISLAND. 

Ship Island is a long wave of whitest, finest sand, that glistens 
in the sun, and drifts before the wind like New England snow. It 
is one of four islands that stretch along ten or twelve miles from 
the gulf coast, forming Mississippi sound. It was to one of these 
sand islands that the British troops repaired after their failure be- 
fore New Orleans in 1815, where they lived for several weeks, 
amusing themselves with fishing and play-acting. Ship Island, 
seven miles long and three quarters of a mile wide, containing two 
square miles of land — the best of the four for a rendezvous — is 
sixty-five miles from New Orleans, ninety-five from the mouths of 
the Mississippi, fifty from Mobile bay, ten from the nearest point of 
the state of Mississippi, of which the island is a part. It lies so 
low among the white, tumbling waves, that, when covered with, 
tents, it looked like a camp floating upon the sea. Land and water 
are menacingly blended there. Numberless porpoises, attracted by 
the refuse of the camps, floundered all around the shore, which 
was lined with a living fringe of sea-gulls, flapping, plunging, div- 
ing, and screaming. The waves and the wind seemed to heave 
and toss the sand as easily as they did the water. In great storms 
the island changes its form ; large portions are severed, others sab- 
merged ; new bays and inlets appear. On landing, the voyager 
does not so much feel that he has come on shore as tnat he has 
got down over the ship's side to the shifting bottom of the sea, 
9 



196 SHIP ISLAND. 

raised for a moment by the mighty swell of waters, threatening 
again to sink and disappear. Terra firma, it is not. 

It was observed that the first aspect of this island struck death 
to the hopes of arriving troops. They faintly strove to cheer their 
spirits with jocular allusions to the garden of Eden and to Coney 
Island ; and one of General Phelps's men, on looking over the ship's 
side upon the desolate scene of his future home, raised a doleful 
laugh by exclaiming, in the language of Watts : 

" Lord, what a wretched land is this, 
Which yields us no supplies 1" 

Appearances, however, were deceptive. The wretched land was 
found to yield abundant supplies of commodities and conveniences, 
most essential to soldiers. At the western end there is a really 
superior harbor, safe in all winds, admitting the largest vessels. At 
the eastern extremity groves of pine and stunted oak have succeeded 
in establishing themselves, and afford plenty of wood. For fresh 
water, it is only necessary to sink a barrel three feet ; it imme- 
diately fills with rain water, pure from the natural filter of the 
sand. Oysters of excellent quality can be had by wading for them ; 
fish abound ; and the woods, strange to relate, furnished the means 
of raccoon-hunting. The climate, too, in the winter months, is more 
enjoyable than Newport in midsummer, and the bathing not infe- 
rior. Nevertheless, it must be owned, that with all these advanta- 
ges, Ship Island was never regarded by the troops with high favor ; 
they never recovered from the first shock of disappointment. 

Before the arrival of General Phelps, in December, 1861, the 
island had been the theater of many events. The breaking out of 
the rebellion found workmen, in the service of the United States, 
building a fort for the defense of the harbor. They soon abandoned 
the place, and the rebels immediately landed, burned the houses, 
damaged the fort, destroyed the lantern of the light-house, and re- 
tired. Then the blockading squadron appeared, captured many 
prizes, and nearly stopped the coasting trade between Mobile and 
New Orleans. But the coast being clear for a few days, a rebel 
force again landed, and proceeded to repair the damage they had 
done, mounting heavy guns upon the fort, and erecting extensive 
works, Commodore McKean unable to reach them with the guns 
of tr e Massachusetts. In September, alarmed by rumors of a com 



SHIP ISLAND. 



197 



ing expedition, the rebels again abandoned the island; but, in 
so doing, were so much accelerated by the vigilant McKean, that, 
though they took their guns with them, they left the fort standing, 
and the commodore captured a vessel laden with timber, hewn 
and cut for the defensive works. From September to December, 
Commodore McKean, with a hundred and seventy sailors and 
marines, under Lieutenant McKean Buchanan, had held the harbor, 
and labored to remount the fort, and complete the works begun by 
the enemy ; darting out occasionally, and pouncing upon venture- 
some schooners from Mobile, or blockade-runners from Nassau. 
Five or six prizes were there when General Phelps hove in sight, 
and two light-draft steamers among them, invaluable for landing 
troops. 

During the next three months the island presented a busy 
scene. The huge steamer Constitution landed her little army of 
troops, sailed, and returned with more ; General Phelps and Com- 
modore McKean striving, meanwhile, to complete the defenses, 
and to prepare in all ways for coming events, whatever those 
events might be ; neither of them knowing the designs of the gov- 
ernment. General Phelps, a strict disciplinarian, assiduously 
drilled and reviewed the troops. He signalized his brief tenure of 
command by issuing his well-remembered proclamation, which 
must be pronounced the most unexpected piece of composition 
which the war has elicited. A reporter records, that during the 
last days of the voyage of the Constitution, General Phelps was 
observed to spend more time than usual in the solitude of his 
cabin. " He did not come so promptly as the rest of the officers 
to the table, and when he did appear, seemed more occupied with 
his own thoughts than with the current of conversation. The 
cause of this temporary reticence was explained on the day follow- 
ing our arrival at Ship Island. Observing that he was more than 
usually busy about some interesting matter, your correspondent, in 
the exercise of that watchfulness which is requisite in the reporter, 
but, at the same time, with that diffidence not always characteristic 
of the profession, seized a favorable moment for putting himself en 
rapport with the commander, and ascertained that he was about to 
issue a very important paper, defining the animus of the expedition 
to the people of the country. General Phelps explained that he 
regarded the occasion as a peculiarly fitting one for setting forth ? 



198 



SHIP ISLAND. 



in a frank and at the same time a tolerant spirit, the sentiments 
which would govern his conduct in prosecuting the war against 
rebellion in the southwest. The document was copied in a plain 
hand, and on the evening of our arrival in Ship Island Roads, it 
was read aloud in the presence of the passengers and officers, who 
were convened in the steamer's saloon. On the following morning, 
other copies were made, one of which was read to the officers on 
Loard the United States steamer Massachusetts, in the hearing of 
several secession prisoners who had been taken on board of the 
rebel steamers and other prizes in port."* 

The document, it should be observed, was addressed to the 
loyal people of the southwest, not to the enemies of the United 
States. 

PROCLAMATION". 

" Head-quaetees Middlesex Beigade, Ship Island, 
"Mississippi, Dec. 4, 1861. 

" To the loyal citizens of the Southwest : 

" Without any desire of my own, but contrary to rny private inclinations, 
I again find myself among you as a military officer of the government. A 
proper respect for my fellow-countrymen renders it not out of place that I 
should make known to you the motives and principles by which my com- 
mand will be governed. 

"We believe that every state that has been admitted as a slave state 
into the Union, since the adoption of the constitution, has been so admitted 
in direct violation of that constitution. 

" We believe that the slave states which existed, as such, at the adoption 
of our constitution, are, by becoming parties to that compact, under the 
highest obligations of honor and morality to abolish slavery. 

" It is our conviction that monopolies are as destructive, as competition 
is conservative, of the principles and vitalities of republican government ; 
that slave labor is a monopoly which excludes free labor and competition ; 
that slaves are kept . in comparative idleness and ease in a fertile half of our 
arable national territory, while free white laborers, constantly augmenting 
in numbers from Europe, are confined to the other half, and are often dis- 
tressed by want ; that the free labor of the North has more need of expan- 
sion into the southern states, from which it is virtually excluded, than 
slavery had into Texas in 1846 ; that free labor is essential to free institu- 
tions ; that these institutions are naturally better adapted and more conge- 

* Correspondence of the N: Y. Daily Times, December 17, 1861. 



SHIP ISLAND. 



199 



iiial to the Anglo-Saxon race, than are the despotic tendencies of slavery ; 
and, finally, that the dominant political principle of this North American 
continent, so long as the Caucasian race continues to flow in upon us from 
Europe, must needs be that of free institutions and free government. Any 
obstructions to the progress of that form of government in the United States 
must inevitably be attended with discord and war. 

" Slavery, from the condition of a universally recognized social and moral 
evil, has become at length a political institution, demanding political recog- 
nition. It demands rights to the exclusion and annihilation of those lights 
which are insured to us by the constitution ; and we must choose between 
them which we will have, for we can not have both. The constitution was 
made for freemen, not for slaves. Slavery, as a social evil, might for a time 
be tolerated and endured ; but as a political institution it becomes imperi- 
ous and exacting, controlling, like a dread necessity, all whom circumstan- 
ces have compelled to live under its sway, hampering their action and thus 
impeding our national progress. As a political institution it could exist 
as a co-ordinate part only of two forms of governments, viz : the despotic 
and the free ; and it could exist under a free government only where public 
sentiment, in the most unrestricted exercise of a robust freedom, leading to 
extravagance and licentiousness, had swayed the thoughts and habits of the 
people beyond the bounds and limits of their own moderate constitutional 
provisions. It could exist under a free government only where the people 
in a period of unreasoning extravagance had permitted popular clamor to 
overcome public reason, and had attempted the impossibility of setting up 
permanently, as a political institution, a social evil which is opposed to 
moral law. 

" By reverting to the history of the past, we find that one of the mt^/t 
destructive wars on record, that of the French Revolution, was originated 
by the attempt to give political character to an institution which was not 
susceptible of political character. The church, by being endowed with 
political power, with its convents, its schools, its immense landed wealth, 
its associations, secret and open, became the ruling power of the state, and 
thus occasioned a war of more strife and bloodshed, probably, than any 
other war which has desolated the earth. 

" Slavery is still less susceptible of political character than was the church. 
It is as fit at this moment for the lumber-room of the past, as was in 1793 
the monastery, the landed wealth, the exclusive privilege, etc., of the Catholic 
Church in France. It behooves us to consider, as a self-governing people, 
bred, and reared and practiced in the habits of self-government, whether 
we can not, whether we ought not to revolutionize slavery out of existence, 
without the necessity of a conflict of arms like that of the French Eevo- 
.ution. 

* 4 Indeed, we feel assured, that the moment slavery is abolished, from that 



200 



SHIP ISLAND. 



moment our southern brethren, every ten of whom have probably seven rel- 
atives in the north, would begin to emerge from a hateful delirium. From 
that moment, relieved from imaginary terrors, their days become happy, and 
their nights peaceable and free from alarm : the aggregate amount of labor, 
under the new stimulus of fair competition, becomes greater day by day ; 
property rises in value, invigorating influences succeed to stagnation, degen- 
eracy and decay ; and union, harmony and peace, to which we have so long 
been strangers, become restored, and bind us again in the bonds of friend- 
ship and amity, as when we first began our national career, under our glo- 
rious government of 1789. 

" Why do the leaders of the rebellion seek to change the form of your an- 
cient government ? Is it because the growth of the African element of your 
population has come at length to render the change necessary ? Will you 
permit the free government under which you have thus far lived, and which 
is so well suited for the development of true manhood, to be altered to a nar- 
row and belittling despotism, in order to adapt it to the necessities of igno- 
rant slaves, and the requirements of their proud and aristocratic owners ? 
Will the laboring men of the south bend their necks to the same yoke that 
is suited to the slave ? We think not. We may safely answer that the time 
has not yet arrived when our southern brethren, for the mere sake of keep- 
ing Africans in slavery, will abandon their long cherished free institutions, 
and enslave themselves. 

" It is the conviction of my command, as a part of the national forces of 
the United States, that labor — manual labor — is inherently noble ; that it 
cannot be systematically degraded by any nation without ruining its peace, 
happiness and power ; that free labor is the granite basis on which free in- 
stitutions must rest ; that it is the right, the capital, the inheritance, the 
hope of the poor man everywhere ; that it is especially the right of five 
millions of our fellow-countrymen in the slave states, as well as of the four 
millions of Africans there, and all our efforts, therefore, however small or 
great, whether directed against the interference of governments from 
abroad, or against rebellious combinations at home, shall be for free labor. 
Our motto and our standard shall be, here and everywhere, and on all occa- 
sions, Fkee Laboe and Workingmen's Eights. It is on this basis, and 
this basis alone, that our munificent government, the asylum of the nations, 
can be perpetuated and preserved. 

"J. W. Phelps, 
" Brigadier- General of Volunteers Commanding. yi 

It is a proof of the very great respect entertained for the good 
general, that the issue of such a proclamation, in the name of 
the troops, provoked little more than a feeling of astonishment. 
There was, it is true, some foolish talk of resigning commissions ; 



SHIP ISLAND. 



201 



ana one naval commander relieved his mind by tearing a copy in 
pieces and throwing it overboard. 

"What," asked General Phelps, on hearing of these adverse 
opinions, " did these officers come down here for ? Was it to sac- 
rifice their ease, to waste their time, and perhaps to lay down their 
lives in a war, simply that a few persons may hold slaves ? I did 
not come for any such purpose. I came to fight, and if anybody 
is afraid, they had better go home. These people, among whom 
we have come, do not ask any favors of us, and I ask none of them. 
I did not come here to steal, but to tell them just what I mean 
to do." 

He declared, further, that his principles were anti-slavery, and he 
*desired the country to know it. He did not, however, wish to harm 
his countrymen of the South, but believing as he did that slavery 
was the cause of the war, and all other troubles of any moment that 
have ever arisen among the American people, he had a right to say 
so, and could not see the propriety of longer apologizing for such 
a baneful institution. "And as for those officers," continued he, 
" who are so fearful that the Union army may do some harm to the 
rebels, they had better come forward and let us know which side 
they are on." 

A copy, it appears, was taken to the Mississippi shore, and hand- 
ed to some one found there. It was extensively used in Secessia as 
fuel for firing the southern heart. In due time, we are told, it was 
translated for the warning of the people of Cuba, who were invited 
to compute what would be the value of their slaves if the United 
States, known to be covetous of Cuba, should succeed in restoring 
its power by the destruction of slavery in the southern states. Gen- 
eral Butler, in common with the whole country, read the proclama- 
tion of his brigadier with much surprise, but was far from joining 
in the hue and cry against it. In transmitting General Phelps's 
report to head-quarters, he merely remarked : " I need hardly say 
that the issuing of any proclamation, upon such occasion, was 
neither suggested nor authorized by me, and most certainly not 
such an one. With that exception, I commend the report, and ask 
attention to its clear and business-like statements." 

General Phelps, with his quaint and kindly ways, and his effi- 
ciency as a commanding officer, soon lived down the clamor excited 
by his proclamation. The rigor of his rule was alleviated by his 



202 



SHIP ISLAND. 



humorous mode of settling difficulties and administering reproof. 
Two bottles of illicit champagne-cider were brought to his tent one 
day, and the question occurred what was to be done with the pro- 
perty — value three dollars. 

" Orderly," said the general, " strike those bottles together, and 
see which is the hardest ; that is the way to dispose of liquor taken 
from drunken soldiers." 

On another occasion, he called a captain from the line of his regi 
ment, and addressed him thus : 

"Captain , I find that you are exceedingly attentive to 

everything" 

The general paused here for a moment, and the captain waited 
to hear the conclusion of the compliment. But the general com-' 
pleted the sentence in an unexpected manner ; " except your duty,'' 
said he. The captain retired to his place amid the titter of the 
regiment. 

December, January, and February passed slowly and drearily by. 
The island was covered with troops ; the fleet augmented in the 
harbor. The troops being inconveniently crowded, General Phelps 
sent over a party to the main land to see if there was room and 
safety there for a portion of his command. A sudden shower of 
canister from a battery near the wharf of Mississippi City was in- 
terpreted to mean that, though there might be room enough, there 
was not safety. The troops, therefore, were obliged to remain 
cooped and huddled together on the small part of the island that 
afforded tolerable camping ground. The monotony of their lives, 
m these forlorn and restricted circumstances, told upon the spirits 
of the men. The resigning fever broke out among the officers, and 
" carried off" several victims. At the end of February, when the last 
transports arrived, General Phelps learned that the next arrival 
would be that of General Butler himself, who might be daily ex- 
pected, and then active operations would begin. But the days 
passed on, and no general came. Two large steamers were lying 
in the harbor, at a daily expense to the government of three thou- 
sand dollars. Now, General Phelps is one of those gentlemen who 
take the true view of the public money, regarding it as the most 
sacred of all money, to be expended with the thoughtful economy 
with which an honest guardian expends the slender portion of a 
girl bequeathed to his care by a dying friend. Still unacquainted 



SHIP ISLAND. 



203 



with the plans of the government, hearing, too, that General But- 
ler had been lost at sea, the costly presence of those steamers dis- 
tressed his righteous soul ; and, at length, he ordered them home. 
So there were ten thousand men, on a strip of sand, on a hostile 
coast, with no great supply of provisions, destitute of any adequate 
means either of getting away or of getting supplies. A deep de- 
spondency settled upon the troops as the month of March wore on, 
and they vainly scanned the horizon for a smoky harbinger of their 
expected commander. Fears for his safety received melancholy 
confirmation, when a vessel arrived, bringing Brigadier-General 
Williams from Hatteras Inlet, for whom the Mississippi was to 
have called on her way. For a month, General Phelps waited for 
General Butler in painful suspense. 

The rumors of disaster to the Mississippi were far from ground- 
less. In getting to Ship Island, General Butler had almost as many 
adventures as Jason in search of the golden fleece. To him, and to 
his staff, who had already encountered so many obstacles in Massa- 
chusetts and at Washington, it seemed now as if gods and men 
were contending against their expedition. But they were animated 
with desperate resolution, feeling that only some signal achieve- 
ment could vindicate their enterprise, and enable them to show 
themselves again in Massachusetts without shame. The general 
had assumed so much of the responsibility of the expedition, had 
borne it along on his own shoulders through so many difficulties, 
against so much opposition or lukewarm support, that he felt there 
were two alternatives for him, glorious success or a glorious death. 
Nor did he suppose for a moment, that the brunt of the affair would 
fall upon the wooden ships of the navy. He expected powerful aid 
from the navy, but he took it for granted, that the closing and de- 
cisive encounter would be with the Confederate army on the 
swamps and bayous of the Delta, defended by works supposed by 
the enemy to be impregnable. Storming parties, scaling ladders, 
siege guns, headlong assaults into the imminent, deadly breach — 
these were the* means by which he supposed the work was to be 
finally done, and this was evidently the impression of the secretary 
of war when he spoke of the reward which would be due to the 
man who should take ]STew Orleans. 

February 25th, at nine in the evening, the Mississippi steamed 
from Hampton Roads, and bore away for Hatteras and General 
9* 



204 



SHIP ISLAND. 



Williams. The weather was fine, and the night passed pleasantly. 
The morning broke beautifully upon a tranquil sea, and the superb 
ship bowled along before a fair wind. Landsmen began to fear 
that they should complete the voyage without having experienced 
what is so delightful to read about in Byron — a storm at sea. But, 
in the afternoon — a change, and such a change. The horizon thick- 
ened and drew in ; the wind rose ; and when, at six o'clock, they 
were eight miles off Hatteras Inlet, there was no getting in that 
night. The ship made for the open sea, and in so doing, ran within 
a few feet of perdition, in the form of a shoal, over which the waves 
broke into foam. The ship escaped, but not the captain's repu- 
tation. The general's faith in his captain was not entire before 
this ominous occurrence, but from that moment it was gone, and 
he left the deck no more while the danger lasted. The gale in- 
creased as the night came on, until at midnight it blew half a hur- 
ricane. The vessel being short-handed, there was a rummaging 
among the sleeping and sea-sick troops for sailors; numbers of 
whom responded to the call, who rendered good service during 
the night — their general awake, ubiquitous. It lulled toward 
morning ; and by noon, the wind had ceased. The ship was then 
so far from Hatteras, that it was determined to give up General 
Williams, and make straight for the gulf. " All felt relieved," re- 
marks Major Bell in his itinerary, "and such as had desired to 
see a storm at sea, had had their wildest wish fully realized, and 
were satisfied." 

Again, the magnificent ship went prosperously on her way. The 
sea-sick struggled on deck ; the disheartened were reassured ; and 
those who had lost confidence in the captain had had their faith in 
the general renewed. The night was serene ; the morning fine. 
At seven, the ship was off Cape Fear, going at great speed, wind 
and steam co-operating ; land in sight ; men in high spirits over 
their coffee and biscuit. At half-past eight, when the general and 
his staff were at breakfast in the cabin, they heard and felt that 
moso terrible of all sounds known to seafaring men, the harsh gra- 
ting of the ship's keel upon a shoal. Every one started to his feet, 
and hurried to the deck. The sky was clear, the land was five 
miles distant, a light-house was in sight. The vessel ground 
upon the rocks, but still moved. Her course was altered and alter- 
ed again ; all points of the compass were tried; but still she touched. 



SHIP ISLAXD. 



205 



Boats were lowered, and soundings were taken in all directions, 
without a practicable channel being discovered. The captain, amaz- 
ed and confounded, gave the fatal order to let go the bow anchor ; 
and the ship, with three sails set, drove upon the fluke, which 
pierced the forward compartment, and the water poured in in a 
torrent that baffled the utmost exertions of men and pumps. Ben- 
jamin Franklin, dead in Christ church burial-ground at Philadel- 
phia, saved the ship from filling ; for it was he who first learned 
from the Chinese, and suggested to the occidental world, the expe- 
dient of building ships with water-tight compartments. In an hour 
from the first shock, the good steamer Mississippi was hard and 
fast upon Frying Pan Shoals, one compartment filled to the water 
line, and the forward berths all afloat. There was no help in the 
captain ; he was in such a maze that he could not ascertain from 
his books even the state of the tide, whether it was rising or fall- 
ing, a question upon which the safety of the ship depended. 

The general, in effect, took command of the ship. Major Bell and 
Captain R. S. Davis, both volunteer aids, were ordered to look into 
the captain's library for the hour of the next high tide. They re- 
ported falling water ; high tide at 8 p. m. Signals of distress were 
hoisted, guns were fired, efforts were still made to get the ship 
afloat. Horsemen were descried on the shore, and fears were en- 
tertained that some Confederate vessel, lurking on the coast, might 
come out and make an easy capture of a defenseless transport. 
Amid the manifold perils of the situation, the troops behaved with 
admirable composure, and perfect order was maintained without 
effort on the part of the officers. It could scarcely have been other- 
wise, for the men saw, during that long and anxious day, Mrs. 
Butler, with her attendant, tranquilly hemming streamers on the 
quarter-deck, she not suspecting the essential aid she was rendering 
the officers in command. The men confessed the next day, that 
nothing cheered them so much while they were in peril, as the sight 
of Mrs. Butler sitting there, in the sight of them all, calmly plying 
her needle. And the danger was indeed most imminent. An ordina 
ry squall would have broken up the ship ; it would have taken days 
to land the men in the ship's boats ; and they were upon a hostile 
shore. The strain was severest upon the nerves of those who were 
most familiar with a coast noted for the suddenness and violence 
of its gales. One man's hair turned white ; one went mad. 



206 



SHIP ISLAND. 



Toward noon, a steamer hove in sight ; reviving hope in some, 
quickening the fears of others. She approached cautiously, as if 
doubtful of the character of the grounded ship. The Union flag 
was made out flying from her mast-head, but still she hung off in 
the distance suspiciously. General Butler sent Major Bell on board, 
who discovered that she was the gun-boat Mount Vernon, Com- 
mander O. S. Glisson, of the United States navy, blockading Wil- 
mington. Captain Glisson, who had, indeed, doubted the character 
of the Mississippi, came on board, and placed his vessel at the ser- 
vice of General Butler. The sea was still smooth, but tokens of 
change being manifest, it was deemed best to transfer Mrs. Butler 
and her maid to the Mount Vernon. A hawser was attached to 
the Mississippi, and the gun-boat made many fruitless attempts to 
drag her from the shoals. Three hundred men were put on board 
the Mount Vernon ; shells were thrown overboard ; the troops ran 
in masses from bow to stern, and from stern to bow ; the engine 
worked at full speed ; but still she would not budge. As the tide 
rose, the wind and waves rose also ; it became difficult to transfer 
the troops ; and, soon, the huge ship began to roll and strike the 
rocks alarmingly. The sun went down, and twilight was deepen- 
ing into darkness, the wind still increasing. But soon after seven, 
to the inexpressible relief of all on board, she moved forward a 
few feet, and then surged ahead into deeper water, and was afloat. 
The Mount Vemon went slowly on to show the way, the Missis- 
sippi following ; the lead continuing for a whole hour to show but 
six inches of water under her keel. The vessel hung down heavily 
by the head, the forward compartment being filled, and no one had 
a sense of safety until, at midnight, both vessels came to anchor in 
the Cape Fear river. " All behaved wonderfully well," Major Bell 
records. " The resources of the general seemed inexhaustible ; his 
seeming calmness and his clear judgment, in view of the responsi- 
bility which the ignorance of the captain left upon him, were won- 
derful." 

The next morning, after a survey of the damaged vessel, it was 
decided to go on to Port Royal for repairs, trusting to the settled 
appearance of the weather ; the Mount Vernon to accompany. Mrs. 
Butler and the troops returned to the Mississippi, except one gen- 
tleman, the chaplain of a regiment, who resigned his commission, 
and stuck to the vessel that had a competent captain and no hole in 



SHIP ISLAJND. 



207 



her bottom. General Butler was ingenious in expedients to check 
the tendency to resign, which is apt to manifest itself in certain cir- 
cumstances ; but he placed no obstacle in the way of the chaplain's 
escape. The vessels put to sea in the afternoon. The next day 
was Sunday, and prayers were said on the deck of the Mississippi. 
The most profound solemnity prevailed in the dense throng of sol- 
diers, who literally watched and prayed ; prayed to Heaven and 
watched the weather. In the afternoon they were cheered with 
the sight of the great fleet blockading Charleston, one of the ves- 
sels of which took the place of the Mount Vernon. At sunset, on 
the second of March, the Mississippi and her new consort, the Ma- 
tanzas, anchored off Hilton Head. 

As no adequate transportation for the troops could be had at 
Port Royal, nothing remained but to attempt to repair the Missis- 
sippi, and this, too, in the absence of a dry dock or other facilities 
for handling so large a vessel. The ship was taken to Seabrook 
Landing, on Shell Creek, seven miles from Hilton Head, and the 
men and stores were removed. The naval officers on the station. 
Captain Boggs, Captain Renshaw, Captain Boutelle, and others, 
conferred with the general, and lent all possible aid to the work in 
hand. Plan after plan was proposed, discussed, rejected. Men 
and pumps strove in vain to clear the compartment of water. Twice 
the leak was plugged from the inside, and twice the water burst 
through again, and destroyed in an hour the work of two days and 
nights. It can be truly averred, that General Butler's indomitable 
resolution and inexhaustible ingenuity were the cause of the final 
success ; for long after every one else had despaired, he persisted, 
and still suggested new expedients. A sail was at length, with in- 
conceivable difficulty, and after many disheartening failures, drawn 
over the leak ; the pumps gained upon the water, and as the head 
of the vessel rose, the work became more feasible. When the 
water had fallen below the leak, a few hours of vigorous exertion 
sufficed to stop it, and the naval gentlemen pronounced the vessel 
fit for sea. 

The troops were re-embarked, and the luckless Mississippi started 
for the mouth of the harbor. The captain, disregarding the advice 
of the naval officers, who were familiar with the soundings, ran her 
aground upon a bed of shells, and there she stuck as fast as upon 
Frying Pan Shoals. " It now became painfullv evident," remarks 



208 



SHIP ISLAND. 



Major Bell, " that if we ever hoped to get the Mississippi to Ship 
Island by water, we must have a new captain." General Butler 
yielded to the universal desire, and to his own sense of the neces- 
sity of the case; he ordered a board of inquiry, which report- 
ing -the captain incompetent, he deposed him and placed him 
under arrest in his state-room. "I am grieved," he wrote to 
the captain, " to be obliged to this action, for our personal re- 
lations have been of the kindest character, and I know yourself 
will believe that only the sternest sense of duty would compel me 
to it." 

Acting-master Sturgis, of the Mount Vernon, took the vacant 
place. Under his skillful direction, the ship was once more floated, 
but not till the men had been again landed, and all the tugs in port 
had done their utmost. March 13th, under a salute of fifteen guns 
from the flag-ship, the Mississippi put to sea, still accompanied by 
the Matanzas with part of the troops on board. 

No more disasters. Seven days of prosperous sailing brought 
them in sight of Ship Island, a long camp floating flat upon the 
gulf. Dismal scene ! A gale was blowing as the ship steamed 
into the harbor, and huge waves were seen rolling up, apparently 
among the tents, and no man could tell which was water and which 
was land. For two days and more, the gale continued, and the 
men, unable to land, looked out upon the island dolefully. It seem- 
ed a sorry port to come to after such a voyage. A gloom that 
some men who were not easily dismayed could scarcely endure, 
much less conceal, fell upon every heart. I have heard General 
Butler say, that when he saw what Ship Island was, and learned 
that General Phelps had sent away the transports, and thought 
of the many chances there were of the failure of supplies, and 
how absolutely dependent they all were upon external and dis- 
tant resources, his heart, for the first time during the war, died 
within him, and it required all tEe resolution and fortitude he could 
command to maintain a decent show of cheerfulness. He was 
somewhat debilitated too, at this time, by a return of the disease 
contracted some years before, at the National Hotel in Washing- 
ton. 

On the twenty-fifth of March, just thirty days from Hampton 
Roads, the troops were landed. There being no house on the island, 
a shanty of charred boards, eighteen feet square, was erected for the 



SHIP ISLAND. 



209 



residence of Mrs. Butler, furniture for which was opportunely pro- 
cured from a captured vessel. A vast old-fashioned French bed- 
stead half filled the little cabin. 

A closer acquaintance with the island did not raise the spirits 
of the troops. The heat was intense. Innumerable were the flies. 
The general discomfit was extreme ; and to add to the gloom, phan- 
toms were not wanting. As the belief gained ground that New 
Orleans was the object of the expedition, rumors of the immense 
preparations of the enemy to defend the city obtained currency ; the 
river was lined with batteries for a hundred miles ; " rams" of fear- 
ful magnitude and power had been constructed ; an army of fifty 
thousand men were in the field. And soon after General Butler's 
arrival, the news reached the island, with enormous exaggerations, 
of the foray of the Merrimac among the fleet in Hampton Roads. 
Were the iron-clads of New Orleans likely to be less formidable ? 
Had we any Monitors to meet them ? If the Wellington heroes 
under Pakenham could not take the city when it was defended by 
only four thousand militia, badly armed, what was the prospect 
now, when all the appliances of modern science had been employed, 
and the place was defended by forts, columbiads, cables, a whole 
fleet of Merrimacs, and a large army ?* 

* New Orleans newspapers were brought over from Biloxi in considerable numbers. Such 
paragraphs as the following were found in them : "The Mississippi is fortified so as to be impas- 
sable for any hostile fleet or flotilla. Forts Jackson and St. Philip are armed with one hundred 
and seventy heavy guns (sixty -three pounders, rifled by Barkley Britton, and received from Eng- 
land). The navigation of the river is stopped by a dam of about a quarter of a mile from the 
above forts. No flotilla on earth would force that dam in less than two hours, during which it 
would be within short and cross range of one hundred and seventy guns of the heaviest caliber, 
many of which would be served with red-hot shot, numerous furnaces for which have been erected 
in every fort and battery. 

" In a day or two we shall have ready two iron-cased floating batteries. The plates are four and 
a half inches thick, of the best hammered iron, received from England and France. Each iron- 
cased battery will mount twenty sixty-eight pounders, placed so as to skim the water, and striking 
the enemy's hull between wind and water. We have an abundant supply of incendiary shells, 
cupola furnaces for molten iron, congreve rockets and fire-ships. 

" Between New Orleans and the forts there is a constant succession of earthworks. At the Plain 
of Chalmette, near Janin's property, there are redoubts, armed with rifled cannon, which have 
been found to be effective at five miles range. A ditch thirty feet wide and twenty deep extends 
from the Mississippi to La Cipriore. 

" In Forts St. Philip and Jackson, there are three thousand men, of whom a goodly portion are 
experienced artillery-men, and gunners who have served in the navy. 

" At New Orleans itself we have thirty-two thousand infantry, and as many more /uartered in 
3ie. immsdiate neighborhood. In discipline and drill they are far superior to the Yankees. We 
have two very able and active generals, who possess our entire confidence, General Mansfield 
LovelL and Brigadier-General Euggles. For commodore, we have old Hollins, a Nelson in hiB 
way."— New Orleans Picayune, April 5th, 1862. 



210 



SHIP ISLAND. 



It happened, however, that the men in command of the joint 
expedition were peculiarly insensible to phantoms. General Butle 7 
was at once immersed in the details of preparation, and rose su- 
perior to the prevailing depression. Captain Farragut — the im- 
mortal Farragut — who had arrived within a few days, and taken 
command of the fleet, had all an old sailor's contempt for every- 
thing that bore the name of ram. From the first, he regarded the 
naval part of the enemy's preparations as unworthy of serious con- 
sideration. Give him wooden ships. He would answer for the 
rams and iron-clads — floating caldrons to boil sailors in. He was 
for fighting on deck, not in the bottom of a tea-kettle. Wooden 
ships were good enough for Xelson, Perry, Lawrence, Decatur ; 
and they were good enough for him. The rebels were heartily 
w el come to their rams and floating batteries, their railroad-ironed 
steamboats, and their fire-rafts of pine knots. 

A few hours after General Butler had landed his troops, he was 
in consultation with Captain Farragut — Captain Bailey of the navy 
being also present, as well as Major Strong and Lieutenant Wietzel. 
The plan of operations then adopted was the one which was sub- 
stantially carried out, and which resulted in the capture of the 
city. 

I. Captain Porter, with his fleet of twenty-one bomb- schooners, 
should anchor below the two forts, Jackson and St. Pliilip, and 
continue to fire upon them until they were reduced, or until his 
ammunition was nearly exhausted. During the bombardment, 
Captain Farragut's fleet should remain out of fire, as a reserve, 
just below the bomb-vessels. The army, or so much of it as trans- 
portation could be found for, should remain at the mouth of the 
river, awaiting the issue of the bombardment. If Captain Porter 
succeeded in reducing the forts, the army would ascend the river 
and garrison them. It would then be apparent, probably, what the 
next movement should be. 

II. If the bombardment did not reduce or silence the forts, then 
Captain Farragut, with his fleet of steamers, would attempt to run 
by them. If he succeeded, he proposed to clear the river of the 
enemy's fleet, cut off the forts from supplies, and push on at least 
far enough to reconnoiter the next obstruction. 

III. Captain Farragut having passed the forts, General Butler 
would at once take thp troops round to the rear of Fort St. Philip* 



SHIP ISLAND. 



211 



land them in the swamps there, and attempt to carry the fort by 
assault. The enemy had made no preparations to resist an attack 
from that quarter, supposing the swamps impassable. But Lieuten- 
ant Wietzel, while completing the fort, had been for two years in 
the habit of duck-shooting all over those swamps, and knew every 
bay and bayou of them. He assured General Butler that the land- 
ing of troops there would be difficult, but not impossible; and 
hence this part of the scheme. Both in the formation of the plan 
and in its execution the local knowledge and pre-eminent profes- 
sional skill of Lieutenant Wietzel were of the utmost value Few 
men contributed more to the reduction of the city than he. There 
are few more valuable officers in the service than General Wietzel, 
as the country well knows. 

IV. The forts being reduced, the land and naval force would 
advance toward the city in the manner that should then seem 
best. 

This was the plan. The next question was : When could they 
be ready to begin ? Captain Farragut said he would sail at once 
for the mouths of the river, and thought he could be ready to 
move thence toward the forts in seven days. General Butler en- 
gaged to have six thousand men embarked and prepared in seven 
days. He would fill all the steamers he had, and take the re- 
mainder of the force in tow in sailing vessels. These arrange- 
ments concluded, Captain Farragut and the fleet departed, and 
General Butler set to work to do a month's work in seven days 
and nights. 

He did it. He labored night and day. Having no quartermas- 
ter, no priceless Captain George, who was consigned to Lowell 
because a senator wanted his place for a relative, General Butler 
was seen on the wharf, blending the quartermaster with the major- 
general, not disdaining the duty of the stevedore, when the ste- 
vedore's duty became the vital one. A hundred Massachusetts 
carpenters were detailed to make scaling ladders ; a hundred boat- 
men to help to man the thirty boats which were to nose their de- 
vious way through the reeds, creeks, pools and sharks in the rear 
of Fort St. Philip. The troops were formed into three brigades ; 
■ the first under General Phelps, the second under General Williams, 
the third under Colonel Shepley, of the Twelfth Maine. The staff 



212 



SHIP ISLAND. 



was announced.* A court-martial was organized, to bring up ar- 
rears of discipline, and a board to examine the new officers. A 
blast issued from head-quarters against intoxicating drinks, "the 
curse of the army." " Forbidden," added the general, " by every 
regulation, prohibited by official authority, condemned by expe- 
rience, it still clings to the soldier, although more deadly, in this 
climate, than the rifle. All sales, therefore, within this department, 
will be punished by instant expulsion of the party offending, if a 
civilian, or by court-martial, if an officer or soldier. All intoxicat- 
ing liquors kept for sale or to be used as a beverage, will be seized 
and destroyed, or confiscated to hospital uses." 

On the sixth day, seven regiments and two batteries of artillery 
were embarked, ready to sail as soon as the word should come from 
Captain Farragut. But high winds and low tides were placing un- 
expected obstacles in the way of the fleet, the larger vessels of which 
were many days in getting over the bar. General Butler was 
obliged to disembark his troops, and await the tardy lightering of 
the ships into the river. A tedious fortnight passed before the 
fleet was ready, the general vibrating between the island and the 
mouths of the river. 

A romantic incident occurred during this interval, which led to 
a variety of curious adventures. A mischance of war tossed upon 
the sand-beach of Ship Island, a beautiful little girl, three years of 

* " Head-qttaetees, Department of the Gulf, Ship Island, March 20, 1862. 
" General Ordees, No. 1. 

"Pursuant to General Order No. 20, of February 23, 1862, from the head-quarters of the army, 
Major-General B. F. Butler, U. S. Volunteers, assumes command of this department. 

His staff is announced as follows : 

Major George C. Strong. A. A. General, Ordnance Officer and Chief of Staff. 
Captain Jonas H.French, A. D. C and Acting Inspector-General. 
Captain Peter Haggerty, Aide-de-Camp. 
First Lieutenant W. H. Wiegel, A. D. C. 

First Lieutenant J. W. Oushing, Thirty-first Mass. Volunteers, Acting Chief Quartermaster. 

First Lieutenant J. E. Easterbrook, Thirtieth Mass. Volunteers, Acting Chief Commissary. 

Captain George A. Kensel, Chief of Artillery. 

First Lieutenant Godfrey Wietzel, Chief Engineer. 

First Lieutenant J. C. Palfrey, Assistant Engineer. 

First Lieutenant C. K Turnbull, Chief of Topographical Engineers. 

Surgeon Thomas H. Bache, Medical Director. 

Major J. M. Bell, Volunteer Aide-de-Camp. 

Captain B. S. Davis, Volunteer Aide-de-Camp. 

First Lieutenant J. B. Kinsman, " 

Second Lieutenant H. C. Clarke, '" 

"By command of Major-Genebal Butler. 

"George G. Strong, A. A. 



SHIP ISLAND. 



213 



age, the child of a New Orleans physician, a rebel of noted bitter- 
ness. She was voyaging in Mississippi Sound with her parents 
and nurse, when the vessel being chased by a gun-boat, foundered, 
and all hands took to the boats. The little creature was a pet with 
the sailors ; she was among them in the forecastle, when the ves- 
sel went down, and they took her with them into the boat, while 
the parents and the nurse hurried into another boat with the cap- 
tain and mate. The boats were soon separated in the gale, and the 
one containing the child was picked up by a cruiser, and brought 
to Ship Island. The arrival of the child among the troops, so many 
of whom had left children or little sisters at home, excited a degree 
of interest difficult to conceive. She was taken to Mrs. Butler's 
shanty, her clothes all wet and torn, and there she was provided 
with such clothing as could be hastily made, and otherwise pro- 
vided for with the tenderest care. But Ship Island, in such cir- 
cumstances, was no fit place for her. She could tell her name, and 
seemed to have a lively sense of having a grandfather in New 
Orleans, whose name she also knew. The general determined 
to send her as far on her way to this grandfather as he could. 
Whether her parents had survived the storm no one knew. 

A sloop was manned, and Major Strong was directed to convey 
her, under a flag of truce, to Biloxi, the nearest point of the oppo- 
site shore, and place her in the custody of a magistrate, with money 
to pay her expenses to New Orleans. Major Strong performed 
this congenial duty. He found at Biloxi a probate of wills, who 
was also a justice of the peace, to whom he committed the child, 
and gave him a sum of money in gold, sufficient to defray the cost 
of her transportation to the city. In the dusk of the evening, the 
tide having fallen, the sloop started to return, but grounded on the 
bar, a few hundred yards from the shore. Nothing remained but 
to wait six hours for the rising of the tide. Soon after dark, a boat 
came off with four men, one of whom Major Strong recognized as 
a person who had conversed with him in a friendly manner on 
shore. This gentleman warned him that he would be attacked by 
a large force in the course of the evening, and advised him to sur- 
render. Scarcely believing that men could be found base enough 
to assail a flag of truce on such an errand as his, Major Strong 
nevertheless thought it best to send a boat to the nearest cruiser 
for assistance. He had seven m«r. with him. Five of these he sent 



214 



SHIP ISLAND. 



away in the boat, under Captain Conant, leaving three men and 
eight muskets in the sloop. Major Strong was one of those sol- 
diers who knew nothing about surrendering ; it formed no part of 
his calculations ; he had not studied the subject, and did not admit 
it as a branch of the art military. He barricaded the deck of the 
sloop, put his eight muskets into position, and extended a stout log 
of wood over the side to play the part of a howitzer. His two men 
were ordered below, having been first instructed in their role. One 
of the men, Macdonald by name, had brought his violin with him, 
and kept up a lively performance in the cabin, of national airs 
and dancing tunes. 

About nine o'clock two large boats, filled with armed men, were 
seen approaching from the shore. Voices called out : 

" Surrender ! Surrender !" 

Major Strong replied : " I am here under a flag of truce, per 
forming an errand of mercy to one of your citizens. If you attempt 
to violate the laws of this sacred mission, I will blow you with this 

howitzer," laying his hand on the log, " so deep into , that 

your commander will find it difiicult to produce you at taps." 

" We'll see about that," returned a voice. 

The boats hauled off as if to consider the matter. They soon ap- 
proached again, one on each side. 

" Keep those boats on the same side of the sloop," shouted the 
Major, " or I'll sink both of you." 

The order was obeyed. The boats came together, and lay off at 
hailing distance. 

"Don't come any nearer," cried Major Strong. "If you have 
anything to say to me, send one man." 

A man came wading, and halted a few yards from the vessel. 

" How many men have you got there ?" asked Major Strong. 

" Forty," replied the man. " How many have you ?" 

" Well, not many, but enough to defend this vessel." 

The major was aware that anything like a boast of his numbers 
would confirm the opinion of the magnanimous foe, that he was in 
reality defenseless. 

While this colloquy was going on, the two men in the hold were 
performing an important part. They contrived to make a great 
deal of noise, and Macdcnald continued his fiddling, Major Strong 
frequently calling out : 



SHIP ISLAND. 



215 



Keep quiet down there, men." " No, don't come on deck yet." 
44 All heads below, I say." " Major Jones, look to your men 
there forward, and keep those heads below the hatches." " Stop 
that fiddling, Macdonald; there'll be time enough to dance by 
and by." 

The wading hero returned to the boats, which lingered a while, 
and then, firing a volley at the sloop, rapidly disappeared, and were 
no more seen. A gun-boat soon came to the rescue of the party, 
and the facts were duly reported to the general in the morning. 

The boiling indignation excited in all minds by the dastardly con- 
duct of the Biloxi savages may be imagined. The general instantly 
determined to give them a lesson in good manners. At half-past 
two that very afternoon, two gun-boats, the Jackson and New Lon- 
don, and the transport Lewis, with Colonel Cahill's Ninth Connecti- 
cut, and Captain Everett's battery on board, sailed for Biloxi, for the 
purpose of conveying that lesson to their benighted minds. Majoi 
Strong commanded the expedition, attended by Captain Jonas H. 
French, Lieutenant Turnbull, Captain Conant, Lieutenant Kinsman, 
Captain Davis, Captain John Clark, and Lieutenant Biddle. 

Soon after four o'clock, the armed steamers anchored off Biloxi, 
and the transport Lewis made fast to the wharf. The inhabitants 
lined the beach, and one wild son of Mississippi stood on the 
wharf, rifle in hand, defying the troops to come on shore. The 
men were marshaled on the wharf. Major Strong placed himself 
at their head, and gave the word to advance. The wild son of 
Mississippi retired. In a few minutes Biloxi was surrounded and 
pervaded by Union troops, the people looking sullenly and silently 
on. Biloxi was a watering place in other times ; the Mississippi 
cotton-planters' Long Branch, now half deserted, dilapidated and for- 
lorn. Major Strong found ample quarters in the building which 
had served as a summer hotel. Two prisoners were brought in ; 
one, the valorous Mississippian just mentioned; the other, a four- 
footed ass. 

" What do you bring that creature here for ?" asked the com- 
mander of the force. 

" Isn't he a Saypoy secessionist ?" replied the Irishman who had 
brought him in. 

" Let him run," said the major. 

"Very well, sir," said the witty O'Dowd, as he obeyed the 



216 



SHIP ISLAND. 



order. " I think myself we had better not touch the privates till 
we catch the commander." 

By the time the surrounding country had been well reconnoitered, 
night closed in, and further proceedings were deferred till the mor- 
row. The troops slept in and around the town. Not a Biloxian 
was molested, not a house was plundered or disfigured, not a hen- 
roost disturbed, not a garden despoiled. An Irish officer asked a 
gj oup, where the blackguards were who had fired into the boat 
that brought home the infernal secessionist's darlin' shipwrecked 
daughter ; but as he elicited no response, the subject was dropped 
for the night. Indeed, the sad, despairing expression of every face, 
the evident poverty of the people, the many abandoned houses, and 
the utter desolation of the scene, seemed to disarm the resentment 
of the troops, and a feeling of pity for the " poor devils'" arose in 
its stead. The manner in which the caught Mississippian devoured 
his rations, led the men to infer that provisions were not abundant 
in Biloxi ; which was found to be true, not of Biloxi only, but of 
all that coast for hundreds of miles. The people were intense and 
vigilant devotees of secession, however. The spy who had been 
engaged by General Butler at Washington, six weeks before, had 
accomplished his mission so far as to visit New Orleans, and had 
come to Biloxi, designing to steal over to Ship Island. But he was 
there suspected, closely watched, and finally arrested. He was then 
in prison at New Orleans. Not a scrap of paper was found upon 
him, but he was still detained on suspicion. 

At dawn the next morning, Captain Clark and Lieutenant Kins- 
man led a boat chase after a schooner laden with molasses ; but 
wind proving a better resource than oars, the schooner escaped. 
As the day advanced, the citizens of Biloxi presented themselves at 
Major Strong's head-quarters, all avowing themselves secessionists, 
none of them justifying the attack on the sloop. The major's 
orders were to procure a written apology from the mayor, and 
from the commander of the Confederate forces, if any such there 
were. The mayor, however, kept out of the way; and it was not 
till "his daughter had been politely conducted to head-quarters as 
a hostage for his appearance, that he could be found. He gave 
the written apology required, alleging that the party who fired 
upon the sloop were a mob which he had no force to control. At 
sunset, with the band playing and colors flying, Major Strong re- 



SHIP ISLAND. 



217 



embarked the troops, and the fleet steamed westward for Pass 
Christian, where a regiment of the enemy was posted, and which 
the general's orders authorized him to visit. At ten in the eve- 
ning, the steamers anchored off the pass, and the troops slept on 
board. 

Danger was approaching them while they slept. The thunder 
of cannon woke them as the day was dawning ; and before the 
troops had rubbed their eyes open, crash came a ten-inch shot 
through the transport, perforating the steam-pipe, passing through 
the cabin-lights, and out through the smoke-stack. In an instant, 
a second shot struck her, which carried away the cook's galley 
and part of the wheel-house. Three of the enemy's gun-boats, 
their lights all out, had stolen from Lake Borgne upon our little 
squadron, and this wa? their morning salutation. A sharp action 
ensued. It was twenty minutes before the Lewis could get steam 
enough to move, during which she received three more shots, and 
escaped three. But at length she both moved and acted. Fortu- 
nately, she had been proyided with two rifled cannon, which were 
used with so much effect as to materially aid in the repulse of the 
enemy. The two gun-boats plied the foe with shot and shell for 
more than an hour before they thought proper to seek safety in the 
shallows of Lake Borgne. Strange to relate, but one man of the 
Union force was wounded, and he slightly — Captain Conant, of 
the Thirty-First Massachusetts. 

Major Strong executed his purpose. He landed his troops, and 
took possession, of the town, a ssa-side summer resort, frequented 
by the people of New Orleans. He dashed upon the camp of the 
Confederate regiment, three miles distant, and reached it so quickly 
after the flight of the enemy as to And in the colonel's tent an un 
finished dispatch, and the pen with which he was writing it still 
wet with ink. The dispatch was designed to inform General 
Lovell, commanding at New Orleans, of the descent upon Bilox] 
and Pass Christian, and announced the cornel's " desire" to attack 
the Union troops " toward evening." The camp was destroyed ; 
the public stores in the town were also seized, part of them carried 
away, and the rest burnt. 

At Pass Christian, the Union officers had their first taete of the 
quality and humor of the ladies of the south-west. 

"A portion of the women," writes an officer, " stood their ground 1 



218 



SHIP ISLAND. 



Mrs. and Miss Lee were of this number. Mrs. Lee and her husband 
keep a hotel, which is known as 4 Lee's boarding house.' It is a 
snug inn. But Mrs. Lee is a tartar. She told Major Strong, that 
* Mr. Lee, although he kept a hotel, was of one of the first families 

of Virginia.' 

'"I dare say,' replied the Major ; 6 there is nothing incompatible 
with great qualities in the business he pursues !' 

"While this parley was going on, Miss Lee pushed herself through 
the front door. She pouted as she passed over the portico, pulling 
as she went an unwilling hood over her handsome face, then some- 
what disfigured by a frown. 

" After the miniature sea and land fights, the officers met again 
at Lee's boarding house. Bread and butter, and poor claret, were 
the substance of the repast ; Mrs. Lee and her fire-emitting daugh- 
ter insisting upon occupying chairs at the table, while Mr. Lee 
waited upon the guests and drew the corks. The display of appe- 
tite was good. I think every man ate the worth of the gold dollar 
which he gave Mrs. Lee, who carefully folded away the hateful Lin- 
coln coin in the corner of her dirty apron. It struck me as queer 
to see this 4 first lady' in clothes which soap could have improved." 

Miss Lee could not be appeased. She continued to pout and 
frown, and to say rude things to the officers in reply £o their polite 
banter, when silence or witty retort would have been in better ac- 
cord with the lofty claims of her family. 

The squadron returned to Ship Island without farther adventure. 
General Butler marked his sense of the excellent conduct of the 
troops in a general order : 

" Of their bravery in the field," he said, " he felt assured ; but 
another quality, more trying to the soldier, claims his admiration. 
After having been for months subjected to the privations neces- 
sarily incident to camp life upon this island, these well-disciplined 
soldiers, although for many hours in full possession of two rebel vil- 
lages, filled with what to them were most desirable luxuries, ab- 
staining from the least unauthorized interference with private prop- 
erty, and all molestation of peaceable citizens. This behavior is 
worthy of all praise. It robs war of half its horrors — it teaches our 
enemies how much they have been misinformed by their designing 
leaders, as to the character of our soldiers and the intention of our 
government — it gives them a lesson and an example in humanitv 



SEDUCTION OF THE FORTS. 



219 



and civilized warfare much needed, however little it may be fol- 
lowed. The general commanding commends the action of the men 
of this expedition to every soldier in this department. Let it be 
imitated by all in the towns and cities we occupy, a living witness 
that the United States soldier fights only for the Union, the con- 
stitution, and the enforcement of the laws." 

Readers will care to know, that the child, the unconscious cause 
of these proceedings, was restored to her parents. Her father was 
seeking her at Fort Pickens, under a flag of truce, while Major 
Strong was conveying her to Biloxi. Her mother, some weeks 
later, induced the gentleman to call upon General Butler at New 
'Orleans, and thank him for his goodness to their offspring. 

April 15th, the welcome word came from Captain Farragut, that 
all his fleet were over the bar, and reloaded, and that he hoped, the 
next day, to move up the river to the vicinity of the forts. He had 
made all possible haste ; but the dense, continuous fogs, and the ex- 
traordinary lowness of the water had retarded every movement. 
On the 17th, General Butler, was at the mouths of the river with 
his six thousand troops ready to co-operate. If the fleet had been 
delayed a few days longer, General Butler would have taken Pen- 
sacola, which, he learned had been left almost defenseless. The 
naval commander vetoed the scheme, not anticipating further delay 
in operating against the forts. 



CHAPTER XHI. 

REDUCTION OF THE FORTS. 

The distance from the mouths of the Mississippi to New Orleans 
is one hundred and five miles. The two forts are situated at a 
bend in the river, seventy-five miles below the city, and thirty from 
the place where the river breaks into the passes or mouths. Fort 
J ackson, on the western bank, is hidden from the view of the as- 
cending voyager by a strip of dense woods, which extends along 
the bank to a point eight miles below it ; but Fort St. Philip, on 
the eastern shore, lies plainly in sight, because it is placed in the 
10 



220 



REDUCTION OF THE FORTS. 



upper part of the bend, and the ground in front is covered only by 
a thick growth of reeds. These forts do not look very formidable 
to the unprofessional eye. They do not stand boldly out of the 
water, presenting great masses of fine masonry, like those to which 
we are accustomed in northern seaports. Fort Jackson is but 
twenty-five feet high, and St. Philip nineteen ; and as the ditches 
and outer works are neatly sodded, the passing traveler sees little 
more than extensive slopes of green, close-shaven grass, and a 
low red-brick wall, with many guns mounted on it, and several 
piercing it. 

But these forts, lying low in the bend of a river half a mile wide 
and running four miles an hour, presented an obstacle to an ascend- 
ing foe such as, I believe, no fleet had ever been able to overcome. 
One poor fort at that bend, half finished and half manned, had 
kept a British fleet at bay, in 1815, for nine days; the English 
vainly using the same thirteen-inch bombs which were to be em- 
ployed in 1862. General Jackson's "Tom Overton," who com- 
manded Fort St. Philip on that occasion, was uncle of Thomas 
Overton Moore, governor of Louisiana under Jefferson Davis. It 
was not till the eighth day that Overton could get one bomb in 
position capable of throwing a shell among the enemy, but that 
one sent them flying down the river — two bomb vessels, one brig, 
one sloop and one schooner. A thousand heavy shells had fallen 
about the fort, without impairing its defensive power.* But now 
there were two forts in the bend, constructed by professional engi- 
neers, at a cost of a million and a quarter of dollars. Fort Jackson, 
a five-sided work, of immense strength, mounted seventy-four guns, 
fourteen of which were under cover ; and below it was a supple- 
mentary battery mounting six. Fort St. Philip was of inferior 
strength, mounting forty guns ; but it was protected by distance, 
being a few hundred yards higher up the river, and had a strong 
battery on each side of it on the river bank. The unmilitary reader 
does not take the comfort which uncle Toby found in such words 
as bastion, glacis, scarp, counterscarp, fosse, covered-way, curtain, 
casemate and barbette. We are informed, however, that the 
forts had all these things and more. I have often looked out those 
words in the dictionary, and find the sum total of their meaning to 
be, that the forts, with their outer works, pointed one hundred and 

* Parton's Life of Jackson, ii., 239. 



REDUCTION OF THE FORTS. 



221 



twenty-eight heavy guns upon the river; that fourteen of those 
guns could be worked under cover, and that the batteries were 
protected by ditches wide and deep, by walls of immense strength, 
by bulwarks of earth and sods, and by enfilading howitzers. All 
had been done for them which the skill of Beauregard and Weit- 
zel could accomplish, working with leisurely deliberation, and 
aided by the treasury of the United States. What they had left 
undone, the zeal of the Confederates had supplied during many 
months of preparation. 

They were garrisoned, as it appears, by fifteen hundred men, 
commanded by General J. K. Duncan, a recreant Pennsylvania^ 
educated at West Point. The commander of St. Philip was Col- 
onel Higgins, once an officer of the army of the United States. A 
large proportion of the garrisons were men of northern birth, who 
had been consigned to the forts because their devotion to the Con- 
federate cause was considered questionable. But experience shows 
that it is a matter of little consequence by what process men are 
got together within the brick walls of a fort or the wooden walls 
of a ship, provided they are ably, justly, and firmly commanded. 
" An English seventy-four," says Carlyle, " is one of the impossi- 
blest entities. A press-gang knocks men down in the streets of 
sea-towns, and drags them on board. If the ship w T ere to be strand 
ed, I have heard they would nearly all run ashore and desert." 
Nevertheless, while the ship remains at sea, they usually do all that 
the various occasions demand. Duncan had a motley, ill-clad, dis- 
contented, and rather turbulent garrison, but they stood manfully 
to the guns as long as standing to the guns could avail. 

The weakness of the forts was the kind of guns with which they 
were armed. . " All of them," says Lieutenant Weitzel, " were the 
old, smooth-bore guns picked up at the different works around the 
city, with the exception of about six ten-inch columbiads, and two 
one hundred pound rifled guns of their own manufacture, a formi- 
dable kind of gun." He is of the opinion that if the forts had 
been provided with a full complement of the best modern artillery, 
they could not have been reduced or passed by wooden ships. 

It was not, however, upon the forts that the enemy wholly relied. 
Across the river, from a point just below Fort Jackson, a cabin 
was stretched, upon which the enemy had expended prodigious 
labor. They had first supported it by heavy logs thirty feet long 



222 



REDUCTION OF THE FORTS. 



attached to seven large anchors. But this cable caught the float- 
ing trees and timber which, in a few weeks, formed a heaped-up, 
Red-river raft, extending half a mile above the cable. The chain 
broke at length, and the whole structure, cable, logs, anchor, buoys, 
and trees, were swept down by the current toward the gulf. A 
lighter cable was then procured from the stores at Pensacola. 
Seven or eight schooners, dismasted and filled with logs, were 
strongly anchored in a row across the river, and the chain was laid 
across each of them and securely fastened round the capstan. At 
the end of the cable, on the shore opposite Fort Jackson, a mud 
battery was built to drive off parties attempting to sever the bar- 
rier. Under this cable the floating timber freely passed ; and there 
was an ingenious contrivance near the fort, by which the vessels of 
the foe were quickly admitted and the aperture quickly closed. 

This cable, because of its signal failure as a means of defense, has 
been too lightly regarded. It might have been a formidable obsta- 
cle. Our naval officers think that if it had been placed just above 
St. Philip, instead of just below Fort Jackson, it could scarcely 
have been cut ; because, in that case, the party attempting it 
would have had to run the gauntlet of a hundred guns against a 
rapid current, remain under the fire of most of them during the 
operation, and then descend two miles under the same fire before 
reaching the fleet. Placed where it was, however, there was rea- 
son to hope that a party could steal silently upon it in the dark- 
ness of a foggy night, and work upon it for a considerable time 
before being discovered ; and even if discovered, the night fire of 
heavy guns might be borne long enough to effect the object ; par- 
ticularly as the supporting hulks would afford cover for the boats. 
The cable was not ill-planned, but wrongly placed. 

Another error appears to have been committed by the enemy, in 
not cutting away more of the woods below Fort Jackson. They 
removed enough to enable them to bring their guns to bear upon 
the channel of the river, but left enough for Captain Porter to 
string his bomb-schooners behind along the western shore, around 
the bend, completely out of sight. He had no need to see his 
object, for his bombs were, purposely set to throw the shells high 
into the air and down upon the forts like falling meteors ; but then* 
guns were designed to be sighted and aimed at a visible mark. 
The forts were stationary, and their exact position was known ; the 



REDUCTION OF THE FOETS. 



223 



schooners were movable, and could only be hit by chance, unless 
they could be seen. 

Besides the forts and the cable, the enemy had a fleet of fourteen 
or fifteen gun-boats, several of which were iron-clad. No one has 
thought it worth while to draw up a descriptive catalogue of these 
vessels, and none of them ventured far below the cable after Pap 
tain Farragut had got his fleet into the river. The sudden collapse 
and total destruction of most of them in the haze and darkness of 
an April morning, deprived our men of an opportunity of studying 
their construction. The greater number were probably river steam- 
boats, strengthened and armed. " The celebrated ram Manassas" 
resembled the Merrimac in appearance, but was not a Merrimac in 
power or strength. One real Merrimac dashing down headlong 
among our wooden ships, might have given them some damaging 
blows — might have driven them out of the river ; but the builders 
of "the celebrated ram Manassas" had not a steam frigate to servi 
as the basis of their structure, and they knew her too well to trus ; 
her among Captain Farragut's steamers. There was also a hug/ 
thing called the Louisiana, built upon the hull of a dry dock, pre 
pelled by four engines, and armed with sixteen heavy guns. Thi^ 
ponderous engine of war was a main reliance of the enemy, but it 
was not finished in time to join in the fray. Fire-rafts and long 
river-scows filled with pine knots had been prepared in considera- 
ble numbers for the entertainment of the attacking fleet* 

In the swamps, a mile and a half from Fort Jackson, two hundred 
" sharp-shooters" were stationed, whose chief employment was to 
scout along the banks of the river and overhear conversation in the 
fleet. It may have been these men who conveyed to General Dun- 
can the most prompt and accurate information of every movement 
of our ships, and every scheme of movement. Such information 
we know that he had. The camp of the scouting sharp-shooters 
was not undisturbed during the operations, and many of them de- 
serted ; but, probably, enough remained to catch the talk of the 
sailors plying their bombs a few yards from the shore. 

The confidence of the enemy in their ability to defend the forts 
against any possible force — against " the navies of the world" — was 
complete. It was long before General Duncan and Colonel Hig- 
gins believed that the fleet would do more than reconnoiter the 
position, or, perhaps, transfer the blockading station to the head of 



224 



REDUCTION OF THE FORTS. 



the passes. This of itself would have been 'in advantage worth 
considerable outlay. But their position they firmly believed was 
impregnable ; and, perhaps, it was impregnable. Certain it is that 
the forts were never taken. 

For the reduction of these forts, thus defended and supported, 
there was then in the Mississippi the most powerful expedition that 
had ever sailed under the flag of the United States. The strength 
and composition of the army we have seen ; it consisted of fifteen 
thousand troops, most of them men of New England, fully provi- 
ded with the means of offensive war, and led by a general endowed 
by nature with the ability to command, and trained by education 
to assume responsibilities and invent expedients. The fleet con- 
sisted of forty-seven armed vessels, of which eight were large and 
powerful sloops of war propelled by steam ; seventeen were steam 
gun-boats, most of them new, and all heavily armed ; two were sail- 
ing vessels, ranking as sloops of war ; and twenty-one were mortar 
schooners, each provided with a bomb capable of throwing a shell 
weighing two hundred and fifteen pounds to a distance of three 
miles. The steam sloops carried from nine to twenty-eight guns 
each ; the gun-boats five or six guns each. The whole number of 
guns and mortars was about three hundred and ten ; many of the 
heaviest caliber, and of the newest construction. 

The fleet had been provided with everything which naval men 
could suggest as likely to increase its efficiency. We have heard a 
great deal concerning the imaginary somnolence of the heads of 
the navy department. I suppose this has been because the navy 
department has been conducted with such consummate energy and 
tact, and with a wonderful uniformity of triumph. We can not 
praise enough our generals who have failed, nor censure with too 
much severity a department which has known little but success. 
Both in fitting out this expedition and in selecting the men to com- 
mand it, the department displayed a foresight and ability that 
proved sufficient in the day of trial. There were only two mis- 
haps : a delay in the arrival of the medical stores, and a scant sup- 
ply of coal, owing to the month's detention in getting the ships over 
the bar. But General Butler, through the wise abundance provi- 
ded by Captain George, was able to lend Captain Farragut a com- 
petent supply of surgeons' stores and a thousand tons of coal. 

The men in chief command of the fleet had spent their lives in 



REDUCTION OF THE FORTS. 



225 



the navy. Of the sixty-three years that Captain Farragut had lived, 
he had been fifty-two an officer in the navy of the United States. 
He was a boy midshipman as far back as the war of 1812, not un- 
distinguished then in at least one bloody sea-fight. Though ad- 
vanced in years, his heart was young, his frame light and active, his 
face and bearing those of a man of middle age. " He was the young 1 
est man in the fleet," says General Butler ; alert in climbing to the 
mast-head, quick in getting into his boat, capable of long-continued, 
severe exertion.* A modest, quiet man, doing his duty with the 
minimum of show and fuss, using simple words, preferring simple 
topics. Above all, he has a firm, brave, honest heart, that can not 
be dismayed by phantoms, and knows no fear, except the noble 
dread, lest in any way, through fault of his, the fleet intrusted to 
his care should disappoint the reasonable expectations of the coun- 
try. The language of eulogy is so lavishly employed in these times, 
that it has acquired an opprobrious quality. But these things are 
literally true of this valiant and noble Tennessean. The country 
knows what he has done ; but his modest worth, his utter sincerity, 
his entire and single-eyed devotion to his duty ; of these there will 
be much to tell, when the final record is made up. It is pleasing to 
notice in the papers relating to the expedition, how perfect was the 
accord between the commander of the fleet, and the commander of 
the army. Whatever either could do, during their long connection, 
to forward the plans, or enhance the glory of the other, was done 
with generous promptitude and fullness. 

The month of delay at the mouth of the river had been well 
spent. Assistant-engineer Hoyt, of the Richmond, conceived the 
happy idea of protecting the boiler and engine of his ship by an 
extemporized armor of chain-cable, hung down from the gun-deck 
to below the water-line ? and fastened by an ingenious system of 
bolts and cordage. The engineers of the Brooklyn, Pensacola and 
Iroquois employed the same contrivance, which was supposed to 
be equivalent to a four-inch plating of iron. The boilers of other 
vessels were protected by an interior structure of sand-bags, layers 

* Tennesseans are young at seventy. Tennessee, that central garden-land of the country, com- 
bining the advantages of North and South, and better adapted for all human purposes than any 
other region on the continent, is singularly favorable to longevity. It abounds in wonderful old 
men. Have we not seen this very summer, Majok William B. Lewis, of Nashville (staunch 
and true to the Union, of course), walking the streets of New V ork ten hours a day, and carrying 
his eighty years with the gayety and ease of a young man ? 



REDUCTION OF THE FORTS. 



of cable, bales of bagging, and logs. Howitzers were placed in 
the tops of all the sloops, protected by plates of boiler iron, or thick 
screens of cordage. Some of the vessels had small anchors at their 
yard-arms, to drop down upon the enemy's gun-boats and fire-rafts, 
and grapple them. Strong nettings of cordage were drawn under 
the rigging, to prevent the cannon-balls, which might be stopped 
aloft, from dropping on deck. All the bomb-schooners, and several 
of the gun-boats and sloops received a coat of mud-colored paint. 
Last of all, to the masts of the greater number of the bomb-vessels 
were fastened large branches of trees, which, mingling with the 
tree-tops of the sheltering forest, would still more completely con- 
ceal them from the enemy. A few of these vessels, which were 
designed to be stationed in full view of Fort St. Philip, were 
covered with a coating of the reeds which grew on the marshy level 
in front of the fort. All hands, under the direction of the engineers, 
labored incessantly to increase the offensive and defensive power of 
the fleet ; and it was to this month's preliminary work that the 
success of the expedition was chiefly owing. Not one precaution 
too many was taken ; every expedient was justified by its manifest 
utility in the hour of trial. The absence of the chain-plating from 
the sides of the flag-ship proved the value of that mode of pro- 
tection ; for, at a critical moment, the want of it nearly lost the 
ship. 

Meanwhile, the gentlemen of the coast-survey, under Mr. F. H. 
Gerdes, specially detailed by Professor Bache for the purpose, 
were busy in preparing a chart for the guidance of Captain Porter 
in stationing his bomb-vessels. This was an indispensable prelimi- 
nary, since nearly every bomb was expected to be discharged upon 
a computed aim. The map was completed in five days, but not 
without difliculty and danger. " Frequently," says Mr. Gerdes, 
" the members of the party were compelled to mount their instru- 
ments on the chimney-tops of dilapidated houses. In other places 
boats were run under overhanging trees on the shore, in which 
signal-flags were hoisted, and the angles measured below with sex 
tants. It was very satisfactory, however, that the last measure- 
ment determined (leading to the flag-staff on St. Philip) agreed 
almost identically with the location given by the coast-survey 
several years ago. It seemed to be a regular occupation of the 
garrison in the fort, to destroy, during the night-time, the marks 



REDUCTION OF THE FORTS. 



227 



and signals which were left daily by the party ; and for this reason, 
Mr. G-erdes caused numbered posts to be set in the river banks, 
and screened with grass and reeds so that they could not be found 
by the enemy in the dark. From these marks, which were sepa- 
rately determined, he was enabled to furnish to Captain Porter the 
distances and bearings from almost any point on the river to the 
forts, and by the resulting data the commander selected the 
positions for his mortar-vessels. * * * Twice Captain Porter 
ordered some of the vessels to change their positions when he 
found localities that would answer better ; the coast-survey party 
furnished the new data required. From the schooners, which were 
fastened to the trees on the river-side, none of the works of the 
enemy were visible, but the exact station of each vessel, and its 
distance and bearings from the forts, had been ascertained from 
the chart. The mortars were accordingly charged and pointed, 
and the fuses regulated. Thus the bombardment was conducted 
entirely upon theoretical principles, and as such, with its results, 
presents perhaps a new feature in naval warfare."* 

The position of the enemy had been repeatedly leconnoitered. 
As early as March 28th, Captain Bell, in the gun-boat Kennebec, 
had run up near enough to inspect the cable, and to discover the 
out-lying batteries, and to draw a thundering fire from both forts. 
On the 6th of April, Captain Farragut himself had a peep at them, 
Captain Bell showing the way. " About noon," says one who 
accompanied, " we came in sight of the two forts, which could be 
seen through the glass to be thronged with rebel officers watching 
our movements. As we came within range, a white puff of smoke 
floated upward from Fort Jackson, and a hundred-pound rifled shell 
screeched through the air, striking the water and exploding only 
about a hundred yards in advance of us. Flag-Officer Farragut 
and Flag-Captain Bell had meanwhile gone aloft, where they sat 
in the cross-trees taking observations. There was another white 
puff of smoke, and another monster shot came screeching toward 
us. This passed perhaps fifty feet over the heads of the gentlemen 
aloft, and struck the water two-thirds across the river. ' Back 
her,' from aloft, and we drift down the river two or three ships' 
lengths, and only just in time, a third furious shell striking and 
bursting in the water just at the point we had a moment before 

* Continental Monthly, May, 1863. 

10* 



228 



REDUCTION OF THE FORTS. 



left. A low murmur of applause at this remarkably excellent gun- 
nery is drawn from our men as we steam slowly up again. Another 
shot falls short, another bursts prematurely (this one from a forty- 
two-pound smooth-bore), when ' whiz-z-z-z,' with a fearful sound, 
a hundred pound shell passes low down, between our smoke-stack 
and mainmast, the wind of its swift passage actually rocking one 
of the ship's boats hanging on the side."* 

A third reconnoissance was more cheering, since it revealed the 
enemy employed in repairing the cable damaged by the rush of a 
sudden rise of the river. The sailors of the fleet held the cable in 
much contempt. 

The last day of preparation is usually the busiest. It was the 
17th of April. The fleet had all reached the vicinity of the forts 
on the evening previous, and the dawn of the 17th found the ves- 
sels anchored in a tempting huddle four miles below Fort Jackson. 
The rebels began the fight. As the sun was rising, a flat-boat 
piled with wood saturated with tar and turpentine, was fired by 
them and cut adrift. A fresh wind was blowing up the river, and 
the descent of this magnificent bonfire was slow. Nevertheless, it 
came, at length, roaring and blazing by, causing a sudden slipping 
of cables and a general anxiety to get out of the way. As it was 
supposed to contain something of the torpedo kind, the Mississippi 
fired a few shells into it, without effect. A boat from the Iroquois 
soon tackled the monster, and, fixing three grappling-irons in the 
leeward end, towed it ashore, where it burned itself harmlessly 
away. The work of preparation then proceeded. The dressing of 
the masts of the mortar-boats was completed, and they looked as 
if prepared for a festival instead of a bombardment. In the after- 
noon, some of the mortars were towed into position and fired a few 
experimental shells, fragments of which were exhibited the next 
day at New Orleans. Preparations were made by Captain Porter 
for the proper reception of fire-rafts, in case the enemy should 
again employ them. All the boats of the mortar-fleet were ordered 
to be provided with axes, ropes, and grappling-hooks ; and early in 
the evening, the boats were reviewed, furnishing a pretty spectacle 
to the rest of the fleet ; nay, a pair of spectacles. 

" The boats pulled round the Harriet Lane, the flag-ship of Cap- 
tain Porter, in single line, each officer in charge being questioned 

* Correspondence of H w York Herald, May, 1862. 



REDUCTION OF THE FORTS. 



229 



as he passed, by Commodore Porter, as follows: 'Fire "buckets? 
axes? rope?' A responsive 'Ay, ay, sir,' and the commodore 
directed — ' Pull around the Mississippi and return to your vessels.' 
The Mississippi being a quarter of a mile ahead, the, men gave way 
sturdily, in order to beat the rival boats. There were not less than 
one hundred and fifty boats under review, many of them ten-oared, 
and the whole scene reminded me more of a grand regatta than of 
anything else. 

" An hour after the review, the men had an opportunity to test, 
in a practical manner, their means for destroying fire-rafts, and they 
proved to be an admirable success. A turgid column of black 
smoke, arising from resinous wood, was seen approaching us from 
the vicinity of the forts. Signal lights were made, the varied 
colors of which produced a beautiful effect upon the foliage of the 
river bank, and rendered the darkness intenser by contrast when 
they disappeared ; instantly a hundred boats shot out toward the 
raft, which now was blazing fiercely and casting a wide zone of 
light upon the water. Two or three of the gun-boats then got 
under way and steamed boldly toward the unknown thing of terror. 
One of them, the Westfield, Captain Renshaw, gallantly opens her 
steam-valves, and dashes furiously upon it, making sparks fly and 
timbers crash with the force of her blow. Then a stream of water 
from her hose plays upon the blazing mass. ISTow the small boats 
lay alongside, coming up helter-skelter, and actively employing 
their men. We see everything distinctly in the broad glare — men, 
oars, boats, buckets and ropes. The scene looks phantom-like, su- 
pernatural ; intensely interesting, inextricably confused. But final- 
ly the object is nobly accomplished. The raft, yet fiercely burning, 
is taken out of range of the anchored vessels and towed ashore, 
where it is slowly consumed. As the boats return they are cheered 
by the fleet, and the scene changes to one of darkness and repose, 
broken occasionally by the gruff hail of a seaman when a boat, 
sent on business from one vessel to another, passes through the 
fleet."* 

The next morning the bombardment began. At daylight, each 
of the small steamers attached to the mortar-fleet took four of the 
schooners in tow, and drew them slowly up the river, the bright 
green foliage waving above their masts. Fourteen of them were 

* Correspondence of the JSTew York Daily Times, May 8, 1862. 



230 



REDUCTION OF THE POETS. 



ranged in line, close together, along the western shore, behind the 
forest ; the one in advance being a mile and three-quarters below 
Fort Jackson. Six were stationed near the eastern bank, in full 
view of both forts, two miles and three-quarters from St. Philip. 
The orders were to concentrate the fire upon Fort Jackson, the 
nearest to both divisions ; since if that were reduced, St. Philip 
must necessarily yield. At nine, before all the mortar-vessels were 
in position, Fort Jackson began the conflict, the balls plunging into 
the water a hundred yards too short. The gun-boat Owasco, whicn 
had steamed up ahead of the schooners, was the first to reply. In 
a few minutes, however, the deep thunder of the first bomb struck 
into the overture, and a huge black ball, two hundred and fifteen 
pounds of iron and gunpowder, whirled aloft, a mile into the air, 
with the " roar of ten thousand humming-tops," and curved with 
majestic slowness down into the swamp near the fort, exploding 
with a dull, heavy sound. The mortar men were in no haste. For 
the first half hour, they fired very slowly, while Captain Porter 
was observing the effect of the fire and giving new directions re- 
specting the elevations, the length of fuse, and the weight of the 
charge of powder. The calculations were made with such nicety 
that the changes in the weight of the charge were made by single 
ounces, when the whole charge was nearly twenty pounds. The 
enemy, too, fired slowly and badly during the first half-hour. By 
ten o'clock, however, both sides had ceased to experiment, and had 
begun to work. 

The scene at this time was in the highest degree exciting and 
picturesque. The rigging of the Union fleet, just below the mortar- 
vessels, was filled with spectators, from rail to mast-head, who 
watched with breathless eagerness the rise and descent of every 
shell, and burst into the heartiest cheers when a good shot was 
made. Four or five of the gun-boats were moving about in the 
middle of the river, between the two divisions of mortars, keep- 
ing up a vigorous fire upon the nearer batteries. Both forts were 
firing steadily and well, their shots splashing water over the mor- 
tar-vessels on the eastern side, and throwing up the soft soil of 
the bank high over the masts of those on the western. It is won- 
derful how many splendid shots may be made at a distant object 
without one hitting it. The balls fell all around the mortar-boats 
all day, and only two of them were struck, and they not seriously 



REDUCTION OF THE FORTS. 



injured. Not a man was hurt in the mortar-fleet the first day, ex- 
cept those who were sickened by the tremendous concussion which 
followed every discharge. The men stood on tip-toe and with open 
mouths to lessen the effect of the stunning sound. But men can 
get used to anything. They came, at length, to be able to sleep 
upon the deck of the mortar-boats, while the bombs were going off 
at the rate of two in a minute. It was exhausting work handling 
those huge globes of iron ; and the men, too tired to go below, 
would lie down along the forecastle, fall instantly asleep, and never 
stir till they were called to duty again. 

Men can bear what no other creatures can. As the firing grew 
hotter, the very bees in the woods could not endure it, but came in 
swarms over the river, and buzzed about the ears of the men in the 
rigging of the fleet. It was too much even for the fish in the 
river ; large quantities of dead fish floated past, killed by the close 
thunder of the guns. Those who looked over the side at this new 
wonder did not see any of those sealed bottles of news go bobbing 
by, which the Union men in the forts afterward said they had sent 
down the river. 

When the fire had lasted an hour and a half, the scene was en- 
livened by a new feature. " Over the woods, beyond the forts," 
says a highly competent witness, " we can count seven or eight 
moving columns of smoke, which indicate that the rebel steamers 
are passing about, probably plotting some mischief against «us. 
Soon one, and then another, and afterward a third, appear in view, 
steering toward the forts. Before reaching them, however, the 
steamers dash to cover again, and we see that three huge burning 
rafts have been set adrift. The swift current sweeps them toward 
us ; below they are a brilliant blaze, and rising from the flames is a 
spiral, funnel-shaped cloud of grayish black smoke, so dense as to 
shut from sight the fort and all else in that direction. Nearer and 
nearer these seemingly formidable rafts approach, but they occasion 
very little anxiety. We know how to dispose of them. The sail- 
ors from the large ships are called out of the rigging, which they 
have been permitted to occupy as interested spectators of the bat- 
tle, and in a short time boats have the rafts in tow, and they are 
landed on the river bank to burn away. We all confess to an ad- 
miration of these pyrotechnic displays. They add vastly to the 
picturesqueness of our surroundings, and are perfectly harmless. 



232 



REDUCTION OP THE FORTS. 



The brave fellows on the schooners did not relax their fire during 
this exciting interlude."* 

The day wore on. Noon came and passed. The charm of nov 
elty subsided. At four, General Butler's little steamer, Saxon, 
arrived, with the news that the general and his troops were below, 
and ready, and that the Monitor had sunk the Merrimac. Captain 
Farragut telegraphed the tidings to the fleet. It had a wonderfully 
inspiriting effect 

An hour later, the fleet was further cheered by witnessing an in- 
dication that the tire had not been ineffectual. Flames were seen 
bursting from Fort Jackson, and the fire of its guns slackened. It 
soon became evident that the citadel and the wooden barracks 
within the fort were on* fire, as the barracks of Fort Sumter had 
been when it was defended by Major Anderson. Both forts ceased 
firing, and all the evening, till two o'clock the next morning, a mag- 
nificent conflagration illumined the scene. At half-past six, Captain 
Porter gave the signal to cease firing, and the night passed in si- 
lence. • After dark, he withdrew the six schooners from their ex- 
posed situation on the eastern shore, and stationed them in the line 
upon the western side of the river. This appears to have been an 
excess of caution, for the most effective shots made during the bom- 
bardment came from that division, and none of the vessels had been 
disabled. It is not improbable that the bombardment might have 
silenced the fort, if that division had been doubled instead of re- 
moved. Its transfer to the shelter of the forest on the western 
shore, was a great relief to the enemy. 

The next morning disappointed those who had indulged hopes 
from the burning of the wooden barracks. Fort Jackson was 
prompt and vigorous in responding to the fire of the mortars. At 
half-past eleven, a rifle-ball crushed completely through one of the 
bomb-schooners, and sunk her in twenty minutes, but harming no 
man. The Oneida, Captain Lee, was twice hit in the afternoon, as 
she was steaming about in advance ; two gun-carriages were knocked 
to pieces, and nine men wounded. The fort, too, suffered so much, 
that its fire sensibly slackened long before the day closed. One 
shell bursting in the levee had flooded the interior of the fort with 
water. Another broke into the officers' mess-room while they were 
at dinner, and the ugly thing lay smoking on the ground between 

* 2s T &w York Times, May 8th, 1S62. 



REDUCTION .OP THE FORTS. 



233 



them and the only door. They sprang away from it into the far- 
thest corner of the apartment, and remained clutched together in 
awful suspense for half a m inute, when the fuse went out without 
exploding the shell. Often, when a shell sank twenty feet into the 
miry delta near the walls, and exploding there, threw a whole 
eruption of black mud into the air, the fort seemed to shake to its 
foundations, and to threaten the total submersion of the garrison 
deep in the black bowels of the earth. The men, however, were 
surprisingly cool after the first day. They discovered that the 
bombs were terrible chiefly to the nerves and the imagination; 
they could see them coming and get out of the way ; and beyond 
dismounting a gun now and then, the shells did no essential harm — 
no harm which impaired the defensive power of the fort. The soft 
earth of the delta is easily stirred and shaken ; but of all known 
substances it offers to cannon-balls the most completely baffling re- 
sistance. The fire of the fort often slackened and occasionally 
ceased ; but it was only to repair damages, which, however serious 
they may have seemed, were, in reality, not considerable. 

General Butler and his staff arrived in the afternoon, and had 
hospitable welcome on board the flag-ship Hartford. He found 
that the faith of the naval men in the efficiency of the bombs had 
ebbed away under the monotony of the ineffectual fire of two days, 
The cable was looming up, as the rilling topic of conversation. 
The cable must be cut; how shall we cut the cable? After 
dark the general and some members of his staff went up the 
river in a small boat, to take a look at this inconvenient barrier, 
They satisfied an enlightened curiosity without molestation from 
the enemy; but on returning were fired upon by one of the 
mortar-boats, and narrowly escaped being hit. The cable did 
not strike these Yankees as being an obstacle absolutely insur 
mount able. 

All night, at long intervals, the mortars played upon the fort, 
each of the three divisions taking the duty in turn. A deserter, 
a Dan Rice circus performer from Pennsylvania, made his way 
throirgh the swamps from Fort Jackson to the fleet, lighted and 
guided by the fire of the mortars, often floundering in mire up to 
his arm-pits. He could only tell that the fort was well battered by 
the bombs. He escaped in the confusion caused by the explosion 
of a shell in alarming proximity to the magazine. 



234 



REDUCTION OF THE FORTS. 



The third day of the bombardment presented no new incident to 
the outside spectator. The mortar-men were beginning to grumble 
at the inaction of the statelier vessels of the fleet, and the officers 
commanding those vessels were arriving at the conclusion, that the 
work of reducing the fort would, after all, devolve upon them. A 
council of captains was held in the cabin of the Hartford. The pre- 
vailing opinion was, that the mortar experiment should be fully- 
tried, and then the running-by attempted. Captain Farragut issued, 
in the course of the day, the following order : 

"The nag-officer, having heard all the opinions expressed by the 
different commanders, is of the opinion that whatever is to be done 
will have to be done quickly, or we will again be reduced to a 
blockading squadron, without the means of carrying on the bom- 
bardment, as we have nearly expended all the shells and fuses and 
material for making cartridges. He has always entertained the same 
opinions which are expressed by Commodore Porter — that is, that 
there are three modes of attack, and the question is, which is the 
one to be adopted ? His own opinion is that a combination of two 
should be made, viz. : The forts should be run, and when a force is 
once above the forts to protect the troops, they should be landed 
at quarantine from the gult side, by bringing them through the 
bayou ; and then our forces should move up the river, mutually 
aiding each other, as it can be done to advantage. 

" When, in the opinion of the flag-officer, the propitious time has 
arrived, the signal will be made to weigh and advance to the con- 
flict. If, in his opinion, at the time of arriving at the respective 
positions of the different divisions of the fleet, we have the advan- 
tage, he will make the signal for ' close action,' and abide the 
result, conquer or to be conquered, drop anchor or keep under 
weigh as, in his opinion, is best. Unless the signal above men- 
tioned is made, it will be understood that the first order of sail- 
ing will be formed after leaving Fort St. Philip, and we will pro- 
ceed up the river in accordance with the original opinion ex- 
pressed." 

But first, the cable must be cut. It was resolved to attempt it 
that very evening. Petards had been brought from the north for 
the purpose of blowing up the hulks which supported it, and Mr. 
Kroehl, the inventor of the contrivance, was on board the fleet to 
superintend the operation. The plan was to throw a petard on 



REDUCTION OF THE FORTS. 



235 



board one of the hulks, and discharge it by an electric spark sent 
along a wire from a gun-boat. Captain Bell was detached to con- 
duct the daring and difficult enterprise. Two of the gun-boats, the 
Pinola "and the Itasca,' were placed under his command, and they 
were to be supported by the Iroquois, the Kennebec and the 
Winona. 

The night was fortunately dark ; but the current, under the influ- 
ence of the recent freshet, ran with unwonted velocity, and a gale 
was blowing down the river. At ten, the Pinola and the Itasca 
started on their errand, watched as they passed into the darkness 
beyond the flag-ship, with an interest which no language can de- 
scribe. The success of the expedition, the fate of New Orleans, 
was felt to depend upon that night's work. When the two vessels 
had gone beyond the line of mortar-schooners, Captain Porter 
opened a fire upon the forts, so heavy, so continuous, that the 
previous bombardment seemed mere play in comparison, with it. 
At some moments, eight shells were in the air at once, eight globes 
of fire, curving magnificently over the black outline of the forest. 
Amid this hurly-burly, the Pinola ran up toward the cable, near 
the western shore, almost under the guns of the fort, and approach- 
ed one of the hulks. Mr. Kroehl was ready with his petard, and 
threw it successfully on board. But as the engine had been stopped 
at the same moment, the wind and current instantly carried the 
vessel down the stream, and the coil of wire on deck ran out like 
the cord of a harpoon when the whale has been struck. Before the 
operator could discharge the spark, the wire snapped, and the at- 
tempt was a failure ; the Pinola whirling away down the river at 
a prodigious rate. Such was the force of the gale and the current, 
and such the darkness of the night, that it was half an hour before 
the vessel was again under command with her bow toward the 
cable. 

The Itasca, meanwhile, under Captain Caldwell, had tackled the 
next schooner, one near the middle of the river. The Itasca had no 
petard ; she trusted to dexterous hands and cold steel. Steaming 
up close to the hulk, men sprang on board, lashed the gun-boat se- 
curely to her side, and then proceeded, in a groping way, to study 
the arrangement of the cable. A rocket shot into the air. They 
were discovered. Both forts opened fire; but, protected by the 
darkness and the smoke, the gallant men of the Itasca worked in 



236 



REDUCTION OF THE FORTS. 



perfect security, not a shot coming near enough to discompose 
them. Half an hour sufficed. The cable was severed with sledge 
and chisel ; the anchors of the hulks were slipped ; and instantly, 
gun-boat and hulk, borne away by wind and tide, swung round to the 
eastern shore, and grounded in the mud, under the fire of both forts. 
Luckily the hulk had the inside berth ; still, the Itasca was hard 
and fast by the forefoot. By this time, however, the Pinola was 
at her post once more, and came to the assistance of her consort. 
For an hour or more she tugged to get her afloat ; parted two five- 
inch hawsers without moving her; but started her at last with 
one of eleven inches ; when both vessels came down in triumph 
without a scratch. 

The success of the enterprise was complete; for after the re- 
moval of the central hulk, the current caused the one on each side 
of the aperture to swing away, so as to make an opening wide 
enough to admit several large ships abreast. A boat's crew of the 
Itasca's men pulled up two nights after ioto the opening, sounded 
the channel, and found no obstruction whatever to the ascent of the 
fleet. Well done, Itasca ! 

The last cheers died away. The bombardment subsided to its 
usual nightly average, and the forts were silent. The moon rose. 
At two o'clock a fire-raft of immense extent came down before the 
north wind and rushing current, blazing, roaring, cracking, and 
rolling aloft the densest volumes of smoke. It passed by the mor- 
tar-fleet, and whirled past the flag-ship, only fifty feet from her side, 
scorching the men on deck, grazed the Scioto, and went on its way 
toward the lower divisions of the fleet. But the mortar-men grap- 
pled the monster in time, towed it on shore, and put out the fire. 
There was little sleep in the fleet that night. The sleepy but 
indomitable reporter of the Herald was obliged to fall back upon 
the reflection, that, if the expedition was successful, it would be a 
fine thing to talk about for the rest of his mortal life. Meanwhile, 
the work was rather wearing to a reporter, dozing within a few 
yards of a bombarding fleet, and having to tumble up every few 
minutes to witness spectacles that had ceased to be interesting. Let 
us gratefully note that the gentlemen of the press, connected with 
the fleet and the army, served the public with signal fidelity. It is 
no joke to prepare, during such a week as this, in such circum- 
stances as theirs, a mass of manuscript equivalent to a hundred 



REDUCTIONS' OF THE POETS. 



237 



• pages of foolscap, abounding in passages highly pictorial, and the 
whole executed with an evident desire to tell the truth. Would 
that these brave and laborious public servants were more justly 
rewarded. 

The fourth day of the bombardment passed without incident. 
Nearly four thousand shells had been fired, and still the forts 
replied with no perceptible diminution of vigor. It was a costly 
business, this bombardment ; each shell costing the government not 
far from fifty dollars. In the evening the enemy appeared to be 
making some attempts to repair the cable, but the fire of the gun- 
boats in advance kept them from effecting their purpose. Another 
fire-raft at night paled its ineffectual fire under the dexterous hand- 
ling of the mortar-men. 

The fifth day dawned — April 2 2d. Captain Farragut had in- 
tended that this should be the last of the bombardment; but it 
chanced that two of the gun-boats had been so much injured as to 
require the assistance of all the carpenters in the fleet. He deter- 
mined, therefore, to wait another day. The morning ^f the 
twenty-fourth, between midnight and daylight, if wind and weather 
were not too perverse, was the designated time. The conduct of 
the enemy showed, what their officers afterward asserted, that they 
were aware of this determination before sunrise on the morning of 
the 23d. 

The sixth day, the forts were silent. Not one gun was fired by 
them from morning till night. The bombardment was languidly 
continued. Green-horns said Fort Jackson had been evacuated. 
Others thought the enemy were drawing a new cable across the 
river above St. Philip. Men at the mast-head of the flag-ship 
reported twelve steamers above the forts, with steam up, moving 
about briskly. Occasionally one of these came down to the old 
cable, as if to reconnoiter, drew the fire of a gun-boat, and away up 
the river again. No inference could be drawn from the absence 
of a flag from Fort Jackson, for it had hoisted no flag after the first 
day. Evidently the rebels were there — were active; but what 
they were doing could only be guessed. 

We now knew that they were collecting their strength for fhe 
final struggle, in perfect confidence of victory. The general com- 
manding in New Orleans wrote that day to General Duncan : "Say 
to your officers and men that their heroic fortitude in enduring one 



238 



REDUCTION OF THE POETS. 



of the most terrific bombardments ever known, and the courage 
which they have evinced will surely enable them to crush the 
enemy whenever he dares come from under cover. Their gallant 
conduct attracts the admiration of all, and will be recorded in his- 
tory as splendid examples for patriots and soldiers. Anxious but 
confident families and friends are watching them with firm reliance, 
based on their gallant exhibition thus far made of indomitable cour- 
age and great military skill. The enemy will try your powers of 
endurance, but we believe with no better success than already ex- 
perienced." 

Duncan reported : " Heavy and continued bombardment all 
night, and still progressing. No further casualties, except two men 
slightly wounded. God is certainly protecting us. We are still 
cheerful, and have an abiding faith in our ultimate success. We 
are making repairs as best we can. Our barbette guns are still in 
working order. Most of them have been disabled at times. The 
health of the troops continues good. Twenty-five thousand thir- 
teen-inch shells have been fired by the enemy, one thousand of 
which fell in the fort. They must soon exhaust themselves ; if not, 
we can stand as long as they can." 

Not twenty-five thousand shells : five thousand. Not a thousand 
inside the fort : only three hundred. The recreant must have pur- 
posely exaggerated. He could not but have known better. The 
w-hole number of shells thrown was five thousand five hundred and 
thirty-two ; and when Duncan wrote, the grand, final, volcanic 
eruption of shells had not taken place. 

At sunset, on the evening of the 23d, Captain Farragut had 
completed his arrangements for running by. The fleet was in five 
divisions. The mortar-boats were to retain the position they had 
held during the bombardment, and cover the attack with the most 
-rapid fire of which they were capable. The six small steamers 
attached to the mortar-fleet — the Harriet Lane, Westfield, Owasca, 
Clifton, Miami and Jackson, the last named towing the Ports- 
mouth — were to engage the water-battery below Fort Jackson, but 
not attempt to pass the forts. Captain Farragut, with the three 
largest ships, the Hartford, Richmond and Brooklyn, were to ad 
vance upon Fort Jackson. Captain Bailey, second in command, 
with the Cayuga, Pensacola, Mississippi, Oneida, Varuua, Katahdin, 
Kineo, and Wissahickon, were to proceed along the eastern bank. 



.REDUCTION OF THE FORTS. 



239 



and close with Fort St. Philip. Captain Bell, commanding the 
third division, which consisted of the Scioto, Iroquois, Pinola, 
Winona, Itasca, and Kennebec, was to advance in the middle of the 
river, and push on to the attack of the enemy's fleet above the forts. 
As night drew on, these divisions lay in their proper order, ready 
for the signal. 

The norther had died away. The night was still, and a very 
light southerly breeze spread a haze over the river. The occasional 
discharge of the bombs, like minute-guns over the dead, seemed 
but to deepen the hush and awfulness of the hour. The men went 
early to their hammocks, and the officers conversed in the low tone 
<f men on the eve of battle. Lieutenant Weitzel continued to im- 
part to them the benefit of his local and professional knowledge. 
He advised them to run in as close as possible to the forts. The 
tendency of all men in battle, he said, was to fire too high, and the 
gunners of the forts had been for a week firing as high as the guns 
could be elevated. Besides, they would naturally expect the ships 
to keep at a distance, and would aim for the middle of the river. 
The ships, too, would certainly fire over those low forts, unless the 
officers took particular precautions to keep the guns depressed. 
General Butler, Lieutenant Weitzel, and the rest of the staff, went 
on board the Saxon, leaving the naval officers to their repose. 
The general ordered steam to be kept up upon the little steamer, 
that he might be in instant readiness to join the army at the head 
of the passes, if the fleet should pass the forts. 

Men sleep the night before their execution, but not the night be- 
fore their trial. There was not much sleeping achieved in the fleet, 
though the stillness of death pervaded the ships. " For myself," 
said a reporter, " I could not think of sleep, because of my anxiety 
for the success of the momentous undertaking which was soon to 
commence. I passed the slow hours in gazing at the dark outlines 
of the vessels. A death-like stillness hung over every ship, unre- 
lieved by the faintest glimmer of lamp-light. There were no warm 
colors in the picture, and its cold, dreary aspect, was suggestive of 
any but pleasant thoughts."* 

At eleven, a signal from the Itasca announced that all was clear 
at the cable. Note, however, that the hulks, all but the one re 
moved by the Itasca, were still in the river. The opening was 

* Tim es. 



240 



REDUCTION OF THE FORTS. 



wide, but, in the darkness of the night, the hulks might prove 
troublesome, especially as the smoke of the ascending ships' guns 
would roll over them. It was just the night for smoke to settle 
down, and, mingling with the fog, hang in an impenetrable mass 
over the river ; for the breeze was of the lightest, and the atmos- 
phere was heavy. In every respect, the night was favorable for an 
enterprise which darkness alone could render jjossible. The moon 
would peep over the horizon at three ; but, by the time she had 
risen above the forest, it was hoped that her light would be wel- 
come. 

At one, all hands were called. Hammocks were stowed. The 
last preparations were made. The low hiss of steam was heard at 
the boilers. • At two o'clock, the signal to weigh anchor ascended 
to the peak of the flag-ship. " I had the honor," says the Herald 
correspondent, " to hoist the signal with my own hands." He did 
himself the honor also to run by with the ship — he and the artist 
of Harper's Weekly — gallant fellows both. 

Captain Farragut's division, close in to the western bank, was 
ready to move at half-past two ; but Captain Bailey, on the eastern 
shore, with a more numerous division, was a little slower, and had 
some distance to go before getting abreast of Captain Farragut. 
At half-past three, the moon slanting a beam upon the swift river, 
the night still hazy, the ships began their simultaneous and si- 
lent advance. During the first few minutes, the very mortars 
held their breath. In the distance, away up near the forts, fires 
could be seen, perhaps to light the ships to their destruction. 
The fleet advanced against the stream not faster than four miles 
an hour. The distance from the starting-place to a point above 
the forts beyond the reach of their guns, was about five miles — two 
miles to the forts, one mile under their guns, two miles to perfect 
safety. 

The mortars spoke. Everything had been prepared for the rap- 
idest fire possible ; and the men surpassed all their previous exer- 
tions. Never less than five of those tremendous shells were in the 
air at the same moment ; often seven or eight ; sometimes, as many 
as eleven. The thunder, the roar, the crash, the smoke, the glow 
ing bombs circling over the woods on the western bank — this was 
the mighty prelude to the opening scene. 

The fleet advanced in the appointed three lines, one ship closfi 



REDUCTION OF THE FORTS. 



241 



behind the other. Captain Bailey, on the eastern side, caught the 
first fire. His Cayuga had just passed through the opening m the 
cable, when both forts discovered him, and opened upon him with 
every available gun. The balls flew around the ship ; but the firing 
was much too high, and he was seldom hulled. As yet, the Cayuga 
was silent, and the rebel gunners, as they afterward said, could 
see nothing whatever ; they averred that they aimed no gun that 
morning at an object, except when the flash of Union guns gave 
them a momentary delusive target. Captain Bailey's division 
steamed on three-quarters of a mile under this fire, without firing 
a shot in reply, guided on the way by the flashes of St. Philip. 
Running in, at length, close under the fort, he gave them broad- 
sides of grape and canister as he passed. The Pensacola, the Mis- 
sissippi, the Varuna and the rest of the division followed close be- 
hind, each delivering broadsides of small shot, and keeping steadily 
on in the wake of the Cayuga. All of the division passed the forts 
with little material damage, except the sailing Portsmouth, which 
could only get up near enough to fire one broadside, and then, los- 
ing her tow, became unmanageable and drifted away down the 
river. 

The middle division, under Captain Bell, was less fortunate, be- 
cause it was the middle division. Half of Captain Bell's ships, the 
Scioto, the Iroquois, and the Pinola, went handsomely by, under 
the most tremendous fire; but the gallant Itasca, when directly 
opposite St. Philip, received a cataract of shot, one of which pierced 
her boiler, and she dropped helpless down the river. The Winona 
recoiled from the same annihilating fire, and retired. The Kenne- 
bec was caught in the cable, and when disentangled, lost her way 
in the stygian blackness of the smoke, and returned to her anchor- 
age unharmed. 

Captain Farragut, meanwhile, was having, to use his own lan- 
guage, " a rough time of it." The Hartford advanced to within a 
mile and a quarter of Fort Jackson before receiving the attentions 
of the foe — Captain Farragut, in the fore-rigging, peering into the 
night with his glass — all silent below and aloft. Then the fort 
opened upon the ship a fire that was better aimed than that which 
had saluted Captain Bailey. The ship was repeatedly struck. 
Captain Farragut, anticipating the situation, had taken the precau- 
tion to mount two guns upon the forecastle, with which he now 



242 



REDUCTION OF THE FORTS. 



replied to the fire of the enemy, still steaming directly for the fort. 
At the distance of half a mile, says the captain, " we sheered off 
and gave them such a fire as they never dreamed of in their philos- 
ophy." Broadsides of grape and canister drove every maD in the 
fort under cover ; but the casemate guns were in full play, and the 
Hartford was well peppered. The Richmond quickly followed, and 
deluged the fort with grape and canister. The Brooklyn, the last 
ship of this division, had the ill luck to be caught by one of the 
cable hulks, and so lagged behind. How nobly she redeemed her- 
self, let Captain Craven relate : 

" I extricated my ship from the rafts, her head was turned up 
stream, and a few minutes thereafter she was fully butted by the 
celebrated ram Manassas. She came butting into our starboard 
gangway, first firing from her trap-door when within about ten feet 
of the ship, directly toward our smoke-stack — her shot entering 
about five feet above the water-line, and lodging in the sand-bags 
which protected our steam-drum. I had discovered this queer- 
looking gentleman while forcing my way over the barricade lying 
close in to the bank, and when he made his appearance the second 
time, I was so close to him that he had not an opportunity to get 
up his full speed, and his efforts to damage me were completely 
frustrated, our chain-armor proving a perfect protection to our sides. 
He soon slid off and disappeared in the darkness. 

" A few minutes thereafter, being all this while under a raking 
fire from Fort Jackson, I was attacked by a large rebel steamer. 
Our port broadside, at the short distance of only fifty or sixty yards, 
completely finished him, setting him on fire almost instantaneously. 

" Still groping my way in the dark, or under the black cloud of 
smoke from the fire-raft, I suddenly found myself abreast of St. 
Philip, and so close that the leadsman in the starboard chains gave 
the soundings ' thirteen feet, sir.' As we could bring all our 
guns to bear for a few brief moments, we poured in grape and 
canister, and I had the satisfaction of completely silencing that 
work before I left it, my men in the tops witnessing, in the flashes 
of their bursting shrapnel, the enemy running like sheep for more 
comfortable quarters." 

Quartermaster James Beck, he adds, stood by the wheel seven 
hours after receiving a severe contusion, and would not leave his 
post till positively ordered. 



REDUCTION OF THE FOETS. 



243 



Most of the ships had run by, and Captain Farragut, having 
escaped Fort Jackson, was advancing toward the other fort, when 
a new enemy appeared — the fleet of rebel gun-boats, lying in order 
of battle just above St. Philip. Captain Bailey, still leading the 
advance in the Cayuga, was in the very midst of them before he 
was aware of their presence ; in the midst of them, and so far as 
he could see, he was alone. It was a moment of anxiety. The 
rebel steamers ran at him, full tilt ; but by skillful steering he con- 
trived to avoid their blows, and pouring eleven-inch solid shot into 
them, reduced three to surrender before the other ships of his ■ 
division came up. " The Varuna and Oneida came dashing in," 
says Captain Bailey, " and soon made a finish of them ;" but not 
until the Yaruna had gone down in glory to the bottom of the 
river, firing as she sank. 

" After passing the batteries with the Varuna," says Captain 
Boggs, " finding my vessel amid a nest of rebel steamers, I started 
ahead, delivering her fire, both starboard and port, at every one 
that she passed. The first vessel on her starboard beam that re- 
ceived her fire appeared to be crowded with troops. Her boiler 
was exploded, and she drifted to the shore. In like manner three 
other vessels, one of them a gun-boat, were driven ashore in flames, 
and afterward blew up. * * * The Varuna was attacked by 
the Morgan, iron-clad about the bow, commanded by Beverly 
Kennon, an ex-naval officer. This vessel raked us along the port 
gangway, killing four and wounding nine of the crew, butting the 
Varuna on the quarter and again on the starboard side. I man- 
aged to get three eight-inch shells into her abaft her armor, as also 
several shot from the after rifled gun, when she dropped out of 
action partially disabled. 

" While still engaged with her, another rebel steamer, iron-clad, 
with a prow under water, struck us in the port gangway, doing 
considerable damage. Our shot glanced from her bow. She 
backed off for another blow, and struck again in the same place, 
crushing in the side; but, by going ahead fast, the concession 
drew her bow around, and I was able with the port guns to give 
her, while close alongside, five eight-inch shells abaft her armor. 
This settled her, and drove her ashore in flames. 

" Finding the Varuna sinking, I ran her into the bank, let go 
the anchor, and tied up to the trees. 
II 



244 



REDUCTION" OF THE FORTS. 



" During all this time our guns were actively at work crippling 
the Morgan, which was making feeble efforts to get up steam. 
The fire was kept up until the water was over the gun-truck, when 
I turned my attention to getting the wounded and crew out of the 
vessel. The Oneida, Captain Lee, seeing the condition of the 
Varuna, had rushed to her assistance, but I waved her on, and the 
Morgan surrendered to her, the vessel being in flames. I have 
since learned that over fifty of her crew were killed and wounded, 
and she was set on fire by her commander, who burnt his wounded 
with his vessel." 

Thus, six of the enemy's fleet fell under the Varuna's fire before 
she sank, with colors flying, to the river's bed. 

While Captain Farragut was still battling with the forts, pour- 
ing broadsides into St. Philip, and receiving the fire of both, a huge 
fire-raft suddenly blazed up before him, revealing the ram Manassas 
pushing the raft upon the Hartford. In attempting to steer clear 
of the raft, the Hartford ran upon the bank, when the raft came 
crashing alongside. " In a moment," says Captain Farragut, " the 
ship was one blaze all along the port side, half-way up to the main 
and mizzen tops. But, thanks to the good organization of the fire 
department by Lieutenant Thornton, the flames were extinguished 
and at the same time we backed off and got clear of the raft. But 
all this time we were pouring the shells into the forts, and they 
into us, and every now and then a rebel steamer would get under 
our fire and receive our salutation of a broadside. At length the 
fire slackened, the smoke cleared off, and we saw to our surprise 
that we were above the forts, and here and there a rebel gun-boat 
on fire. As we came up with them, trying to make their escape, 
they were fired into and riddled, so that they ran them on shore ; 
and all who could made their escape to the shore. The Missis- 
sippi and the Manassas made a set at each other at full speed, and 
when they were within forty yards, the ram dodged the Mississippi 
and ran on shore, when the latter poured her broadside into her, 
knocked away her smoke-stack, and then sent men on board of her ; 
but she was deserted and riddled, and after a while she drifted 
down the stream full of water. She was the last of the eleven 
we destroyed." 

In the hurly-burly, Captain Farragut was struck by the wind of 
a passing shot, as he sat in the fore-rigging. Our friend of the 



REDUCTION OF THE FORTS. 



246 



Herald mentions that a shot, at the same' time, knocked his cabin 
to pieces, shattered his effects, and nearly carried off the toilfully 
prepared manuscript of the bombardment. 

The scene when the fire caught the flag-ship, which was the 
crowning moment of the battle, is wholly beyond the imagination 
to conceive ; much more beyond the power of words to describe. 
I shall not attempt the impossible. The mere noise was an expe- 
rience unique to the oldest officers : — Twenty mortars, a hundred 
and forty-two guns in the fleet, a hundred and twenty on the forts ; 
the crash of splinters, the explosions of boilers and magazines ; 
the shouts, the cries, the shrieks of scalded and drowning men. 
Add to this the belching flashes of the guns, the blazing raft, the 
burning steamboats, the river full of fire. The confined space in 
which the action was fought is to be also considered ; and, con- 
fined as it was, each ship was fighting its own battle, ignorant of 
nearly all that passed beyond its own guns. " The river," says 
Captain Farragut, " was too narrow for more than two or three 
vessels to act to advantage, but all were so anxious, that my great- 
est fear was that we would fire into each other, and Captain Wain- 
wright and myself were hollowing ourselves hoarse at the men not 
to fire into our ships." The time, too, was wonderfully short. The 
forts were passed, and the enemy's fleet destroyed in an hour and 
a half after the ships had left their anchorage. 

The Cayuga had been struck forty-two times in the melee, to the 
great damage of masts and rigging. But Captain Bailey, keeping 
on up the river, descried, in the gray light of the dawn, a camp 
upon the shore at the quarantine station, five miles above the forts, 
the rebel soldiers in full flight. The flight was promptly arrested, 
and the officers surrendered the position. The fleet came up, ship 
after ship, each received with cheers, each responding with cheers, 
as she dropped her anchor in line along the shore. The dead, thirty 
in number, were buried. The wounded, of whom there were a hun- 
dred and nineteen, were duly cared for. Repairs were made, and 
the rigging was spliced ; for Captain Farragut was going on in 
quest of other batteries that still blocked the way. Captain Boggs, 
hailed by his generous comrades the hero of the morning, being 
without a ship, undertook to convey a dispatch round to General 
Butler in an open boat through a tortuous bayou. Two gun-boats 
were detailed to remain at the quarantine station and co-operate 



246 



REDUCTION OP THE FORTS. 



with the troops in the contemplated landing behind Fort St. Philip. 
At eleven in the morning, Captain Farragut gave the signal and 
the fleet stood up the river — so slight was the damage received in 
the action. Except the Itasca and the Varuna, no vessel had re- 
ceived sufficient injury to seriously impair her effective force — an 
escape that was wholly due to the darkness of the night. In day- 
light no wooden ship could have passed those forts ; nor could iron- 
clads, if the forts had mounted such guns as the rebels now have at 
Charleston. 

Of those who witnessed the scenes of this memorable morning, 
none looked on with an interest so absorbing and profound as Gen- 
eral Butler and a group of his staff officers — Major Strong, Major 
Bell, Lieutenant Weitzel, and Lieutenant Kinsman. They were 
on board the Saxon, which followed closely in the rear of Captain 
Bailey's division, until the shells from the forts, splashing in the 
water before and behind the little vessel, warned the general that 
he had gone far enough. " We forgot," says Major Bell, " that 
Porter's twenty mortar-boats were vomiting from beside us a hor- 
rid discharge of shell ; we forgot that we were within the range 
of the enemy's and our own guns, and that the shells of both were 
falling about us — such was the fascination which lured us on behind 
the advancing ships." The Saxon had eight hundred barrels of 
powder on board — a fact of which her captain was painfully con- 
scious. He was a happy man when the general gave the word to 
drop a little astern. From a point just below the reach of the guns, 
the party on the forecastle of the Saxon saw the fleet vanish into the 
bend, and heard the tremendous uproar of the fire. " Combine," says 
Major Bell, " all you have ever heard of thunder, and add to it all 
you have ever seen of lightning, and you have, perhaps, a concep- 
tion of the scene." They could not tell what was happening, nor 
who was winning. Still more puzzled were they when the fleet 
seemed to have passed the forts, and the cannonade, which had 
slackened, broke out again with more fury than before. Then the 
forts were illumined with fire. Is it a burning ship ? " ISTo," said 
Lieutenant Weitzel, " it is too low for that." Portions of the burn- 
ing raft, steamboats burning and hissing came by, the river at times 
covered with fire. The vessels that failed to get past drifted down, 
but could give little information of what had been achieved. 

The cannonade subsided at length, and the fiery masses disap 



.REDUCTION" OF THE FORTS. 



247 



peared from the river. It was the time of sunrise, but a pall of 
smoke hurig over land and water. It was darker than midnight. 
A breeze sprang up, and rolled the smoke from the river. Start- 
ling change ! In three minutes the sun of a bright April morning 
shone upon the scene. There lay the forts, with the flag of seces- 
sion waving from both flag-staffs, hoisted to denote that they were 
still unsubdued. But, away up the river, beyond the forts, could 
be seen the top-masts of the fleet, dressed in the stars and stripes ! 
Captain Porter's fleet of steamers were coming rapidly down the 
river, propelled by a report that the " celebrated ram Manassas" 
was after them. " And sure enough," says Captain Porter, " there 
she was, apparently steaming along shore, ready to pounce upon 
the apparently defenseless mortar-vessels. Two of our steamers 
and some of the mortar-vessels opened fire on her, but I soon dis- 
covered that the Manassas could harm no one again, and I ordered 
the vessels to save their shot. She was beginning to emit some 
smoke from her ports or holes, and was discovered to be on fire 
and sinking. Her pipes were all twisted and riddled with shot, 
and her hull was also well cut up. She had evidently been used 
up by the squadron as they passed along. I tried to save her, as a 
curiosity, by getting a hawser around her and securing her to the 
bank ; but just after doing so she faintly exploded, her only gun 
went off, and emitting flames through her bow port, like some huge 
animal, she gave a plunge and disappeared under the water.. Next 
came a steamer on fire, which appeared to be a vessel of* war be- 
longing to the rebels ; and after her two others, all burning and 
floating down the stream." 

This looked like victory. But was it a victory ? The rebel flags 
waved defiance still ; and it soon appeared that three of the ene- 
my's gun-boats had escaped destruction, one of which was the pon- 
derous armed dry-dock, named the Louisiana. True, she was a 
phantom — a useless, lumbering, unmanageable hulk. But this was 
not suspected. She was supposed to be a steam battery of sixteen 
Merrimac power, capable of crushing a poor little row of mortar 
boats with one graze of her iron-clad sides. 

About seven in the morning, Captain Porter sent a gun-boat to- 
ward the forts, with a flag of truce, to demand their surrender. 
Five cannon-balls from one of them (the color of the flag not hav- 
ing been discerned), gave an intimation of the answer that mi^ht be 



248 REDUCTION OF THE FOETS. 

expected. The gun-boat retired, followed soon by a rebel officer 
with apologies, who also brought a reply to the summons : No 
surrender, the forts will never surrender. The rebel gun-boats 
hovered about above the cable, drawing renewal of fire from the 
mortar-vessels. But the Louisiana ! Word was brought by a 
gun-boat, which had given the rebel messenger a friendly tow up 
the stream, that Fort Jackson was transferring heavy guns to the 
monster, which, it was thought, would soon be down among the > 
residue of the fleet. Captain Porter ordered the mortar-vessels to 
weigh anchor and hasten down the stream. Towed by the steam- 
ers belonging to them, they abandoned the vicinity of the forts, 
leaving the enemy to repose, and proceeded to the head of the 
passes. Two killed, six wounded, one vessel sunk, four or five 
slightly injured, were the losses the mortar-fleet had sustained dur- 
ing the bombardment. 

General Butler, perceiving now that the time had come for the 
army to play its part, borrowed a light-draft steamer from Captain 
Porter, and hastened down the river to join his troops. 

During the next three days the forts were not molested and fired 
not a gun. Dismounted guns were replaced, some repairs were 
made, and the garrisons rested from their labors ; their numbers 
little diminished by the week's fire, the forts as strong in defensive 
power as when the bombardment began. Captain Porter in his 
first report remarked : " These forts can hold out still for some 
time, and I would suggest that the Monitor and Mystic, if they can 
be spared, be sent here without a moment's delay, to settle the 
question." There was still a chance then, for General Butler and 
his impatient troops, who had been lying a week at the passes, 
hearing, when the wind blew down the river, the distant thunder 
of the bombardment. 

Up anchor, all the transport steamers ! The sailing vessels in 
tow to remain in the river under General Phelps. General Wil 
liams to command the troops on board the steamers. 

Sable Island, twelve miles in the rear of St. Philip, was the ren 
dezvous. Twenty-four hours were lost by the grounding of the bor- 
rowed Miami, an ex-ferry-boat, drawing seven feet and a half. Cap- 
tain Boggs reached the general with a dispatch from Captain Far- 
ragut, having been twenty-six hours in an open boat. "We had a 
hot time of it," wrote the flag-officer: "but after being on fire and 



EEDTJCTION OF THE FORTS. 



249 



run at by the ram, and attacked by forts and rebel steamers, we 
succeeded in getting through, taking all their gun-boats and the 
ram to boot." He added that he should " push on" to New Orleans, 
leaving the forts to the tender mercies of the general.* 

On the 26th of April, the Twenty-sixth Massachusetts under Col- 
onel Jones, the same Colonel Jones that led the Sixth Massachu- 
setts through Baltimore on the 19th of April, 1861, was crowded on 
board the Miami, with companies of the Fourth Wisconsin and 
Twenty-first Indiana. Cautiously the little steamer felt her way 
in those shallows ; but when the fort was still six miles distant, 
she grounded again. The thirty boats were manned and filled with 
troops. Guided by Lieutenant Weitzel, and by Captain Everett 
of the Sixth Massachusetts battery, who had been out reconnoiter- 
ing there during the bombardment, the boats pulled for the swampy 
shore. The bayous empty into the gulf at that point with such a 
rush of cross-currents, that, at times, it was all the boats could do 
to hold their own. Four miles and a half of fierce rowing brought 
them into Manuel's canal, which, running like a mill-race, forbade 
farther progress by rowing. Soldiers sprang into the water — a 
line of soldiers clutching the side of each boat ; and floundering thus 
breast-deep in water and mire, and phantom sharks, drew the boats 
by main force a mile and a half, to a landing place five miles above 
St. Philip. By this laborious process two hundred of the troops 
were landed from the Miami in the course of the day, meeting no 

* Captain Boggs brought a characteristic note to Captain Porter also : 

" Dear Porter : We had a rough time of it, as Boggs will tell you, but, thank God, the number 
of killed and wounded was very small, considering. This ship had two killed and eight wounded. 
We destroyed the ram in a single combat between her and the old Mississippi, but the ram back- 
ed out when she saw the Mississippi coming at him so rampantly, and he dodged her, and ran on 
shore, whereupon Smith put two or three broadsides through him, and knocked him all to pieces. 
The ram pushed a fire-raft on to me, and in trying to avoid it, I ran the ship on shore. He again 
pushed the fire-raft on me, and got the ship an fire all along one side. I thought it was all up 
with us, but we put it out, and got off again, proceeding up the river, fighting our way. We 
have destroyed all but two of the gun-boats, and these will have to surrender with the forts. I 
intend to follow up my success and push for New Orleans, and then come down and attend to 
the forts, so you hold them in statu quo until I come back. I think if you send a flag of truoe, 
and demand their surrender they will yield, for their intercourse with the city is cut oS. We 
have cut the wires above the quarantine, and are now going ahead, I took three hundred or four 
hundred prisoners at quarantine. They surrendered, and I paroled them not to take up arms 
again. I could not stop to take care of them. If the general will come up to the bayou and land 
a few men, or as many as he pleases, he will find two of oar gun-boats there to protect him from 
gun-boats that are at the forts. I wish to get to the English Turn, where they say they have not 
placed a battery yet, but have two above, nearer New Orleans. They will not be idle, and 
neither will I. You supported us most nobly. Very truly yours, 

"D. G-. Farrag-itt.'* 



250 



REDUCTION OF THE FORTS. 



opposition. Lieutenant Weitzel stationed part of them on the west- 
ern bank, part on the eastern. Captain Porter had, meanwhile, 
placed some of his mortar-schooners in the bay behind Fort Jack- 
son; and thus, On the morning of the 27th, the forts were invested 
on every side — up the river, down the river, and in the rear. 

That night came the thrilling news that Captain Farragut's- fleet 
was at an anchor before New Orleans. General Butler, perceiving 
the absolute necessity of light-draft steamers for landing his heavy 
gans and ammunition, desiring also to confer with Captain Farra- 
guu left General Williams to continue the landing of the troops — 
a work of days — and went up to the city, accompanied by Captain 
Boggs. 

The same night, a picket of Union men on the western bank had 
a peculiar and joyful experience. A body of rebel troops, two hun- 
dred and fifty in number, came out of Fort Jackson, and gave them- 
selves up. They said they had fought as long as fighting was of 
any use; but, seeing the forts surrounded, they had resolved not 
to be sacrificed upon a point of honor, and therefore had muti- 
nied, spiked the up-river guns, and broken away. The forts were 
still defensible, however, and could have given the troops a tough 
piece of work. But, the next morning, the officers deemed it best 
to surrender. Captain Porter, who chanced to be present in the 
river, and had the means of reaching the forts by water, negotiated 
the surrender, granting conditions more favorable than were neces- 
sary. The officers were allowed to retain their side-arms and pri- 
vate property, and both officers and men were released on parole. 
While the negotiations were proceeding in the cabin of the Harriet 
Lane, the huge Louisiana was set on fire by her officers, and set 
adrift down the river. She blew up only just in time not to de- 
stroy the Union fleet, toward which she was drifting. The explo- 
sion was regarded by the army as a commentatory note of exclama- 
tion upon the favorable terms conceded to the garrison. Captain 
Porter justly placed in close confinement the officers who had done 
the dastardly act. 

The joy, the curiosity with which the troops entered the forts 
and scanned the result of the long fire upon them, may be ima- 
gined. St. Philip, beyond one or two slight abrasures, was abso- 
lutely uninjured. Respecting the damage done to Fort Jackson, 
different opinions have been published. It is important for our 



REDUCTION OF THE FORTS. 



251 



instruction in the art of war that the truth upon this point should 
be known and established. The testimony of Lieutenant Weitzel 
will settle the question in the mind of every officer of the regular 
army. In a report to General Butler, dated May 5th, 1862, Lieu- 
tenant Weitzel says : 

" The navy passed the works, but did not reduce them. Fort St. 
Philip stands, with one or two slight exceptions, to-day without a 
scratch. Fort Jackson was subjected to a torrent of thirteen-inch 
and eleven-inch shells during a hundred and forty-four hours. To 
an inexperienced eye it seems as if this work were badly cut up. 
It is as strong to-day as when the first shell was fired at it. The 
rebels did not bomb-proof the citadel ; consequently the roof and 
furring caught fire. This fire, with subsequent shells, ruined the 
walls so much that I am tearing it down and removing the debris 
to the outside of the work. Three shot-furnaces and three cisterns 
were destroyed. At several points the breast-hight walls were 
knocked down. One angle of the magazine on the north side of 
the postern was knocked off. Several shells went through the 
flank casemate arches (which were not covered with earth), and a 
few through the other casemate arches (where two or more struck 
in the same place). At several points in the casemates, the thir- 
teen-inch shell would penetrate through the earth over the arches, 
be stopped by the latter, then explode, and loosen a patch of brick 
work in the souffbir of the arch about three feet in diameter and 
three-quarters of a brick deep, at its greatest depth. 

" To resist an assault, and even regular approaches, it is as strong 
to-day as ever it was. I conducted a land force, after the navy had 
passed up the river by the way of the gulf, through a bayou and 
canal which were familiar to me, to a point on the river about five 
miles above the works, and in plain sight of the rebels, but out of 
range. The garrison of Fort Jackson seeing themselves completely 
surrounded, became demoralized, three hundred mutinied and de- 
serted in a body, and were taken by a picket which I had posted 
as soon as I landed on the west bank of the river, from Cyprien's 
canal to Allen's store. The commanding officer the next day sur- 
rendered both works. He had provisions in them for four months 
and ammunition in abundance. 

"They had about eighty heavy guns mounted, in all, at or 
Jackson, and about forty at Fort St. Philip. All of them were the 
11* 



252 



REDUCTION OF THE FORTS. 



old guns picked up at the different works around the city, with the 
exception of about six ten-inch columbiads, and two one-hundred- 
pounder rifled guns (the latter of their own manufacture and quito 
a formidable gun). They had done nothing to the lower battery at 
Fort Jackson in the way of building the breast-heights and laying 
the platforms. Nearly all the platforms are at the works. They 
had only six guns in the lower battery at Fort Jackson, only four- 
teen guns in casemate at the same fort (all smooth bore). They 
had seventeen guns in the upper battery and eighteen in the lower 
battery at Fort St. Philip (all the old guns), and only five in the 
main work. 

"The fleet suffered most from the two batteries at Fort St. 
Philip. They being so low the fleet fired over them, and they in 
their turn repeatedly hulled the vessels. 

" The fire on both sides, as a general thing, was too high. The 
fleet followed the advice I gave them, to rim in right close, and a 
great many of the officers have already thanked me for my advice. 
I was with the fleet during the bombardment, giving the flag-officer 
and others the benefit of my knowledge of the works, and during 
the engagement was on board the armed transport Saxon, in the 
bend of the river just opposite Fort Jackson, and had a good view 
of the engagement. 

" In conclusion I beg leave to say, that you have every reason 
to be proud of the works ; and had they had their full armament 
(the new one), with the proper amount of shell-guns, that fleet 
would never have passed them. The chain was removed two 
nights before the attack, without any loss. It was a grand 
humbug." 

If the splendid daring of Captain Farragut and the fleet deprived 
General Butler of his lieutenant-generalship, it is but just , to him 
and the army to declare, that it was the prompt and unexpected 
landing of the troops in the rear of St. Philip that caused the mu- 
tiny which led to the surrender. Fighting wins the laurel, and 
justly wins it, for fighting is the true and final test of soldierly 
merit : but a maneuver which accomplishes results without fight' 
ing — that also merits recognition. 



THE PANIC IN NEW ORLEANS. 



253 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE PANIC IN NEW ORLEANS. 

New Orleans did not rush headlong into secession in the 
Charleston manner. The doctrine, that if Mr. Lincoln was elected 
the nation must be broken up, was not popular there during the 
canvass of 1860; it was, on the contrary, scouted by the ablest 
newspapers, and the influential men. In 1856, the city had given a 
majority of its votes to Mr. Fillmore ; in 1860, Bell and Everett 
were the favorite candidates. Bell, 5,215 ; Douglas, 2,996 ; Breck- 
inridge, 2,646 ; Lincoln, 0. The fact was manifest to all reflecting 
men, that the two states which derived from the Union the great- 
est sum-total of direct pecuniary benefit were Massachusetts and 
Louisiana. 

The great sugar interest, the Creole sugar-planters, who held the 
best of the cultivated parts of the state, stood by the Union last of 
all. Thomas J. Durant, an eminent lawyer of New Orleans, one of 
the half dozen men of position who have never deserted the cause 
of their country, says, in a letter to General Butler: 

" The protection and favor which were enjoyed by these men under 
the government of the United States, and the benefit they derived 
from their possession of the home market for their product, to the 
utter exclusion of all foreign competition, was thoroughly under- 
stood by them. They are men retaining all the peculiarities of a 
French ancestry : not apt in what is called business, yet fond of 
gain ; generous, high-spirited, and averse to the active strife of com- 
merce as well as of politics. They never concerned themselves too 
eagerly in the contests of party, and no equal body of men in the 
South looked upon secession with so much reluctance, or were so 
unwilling to be dragged into it, as the sugar-planters of Louisiana. 
It is true, they at last yielded to the moral epidemic which over- 
spread the South ; and when the young men, under the excitement 
of martial enthusiasm and a mistaken view of the interests of their 
section, went to the war, their feelings became, to a certain extent, 



254 



THE PANIC IN NEW ORLEANS. 



enlisted on the side of the Confederacy. But no prominent officer 
in the Confederate army has come from the ranks of the sugar-plant- 
ers of Louisiana of French descent, and, indeed, only one from the 
sugar-planters at all — Brigadier-General Richard Taylor, son of the 
late president of the United States." 

The first gun fired in a war, carries conviction to wavering 
minds. Every man in the world either is a secessionist, or could 
become one, who holds slaves, or who could hold slaves with an 
easy conscience, or who can contemplate the fact with indifference 
that slaves are held. In this great controversy, the United States 
has not one hearty and perfectly trustworthy adherent on earth, 
who is not note an abolitionist. Its actual and possible enemies are 
all who do not detest slavery, whether they be called secessionists, 
copperheads, or Englishmen. 

So the " moral epidemic" spread in New Orleans, and it became 
nearly unanimous for secession. If the majority for secession was 
small in the city, it sufficed to make secession master. Union men 
were banished by law ; Union sentiments suppressed by violence. 
I know not whether the horrid tale of the New England school- 
mistress stripped naked in Lafayette Square, and tarred and feather- 
ed amid the jeers of the mob, is true or false. I presume it is false ,* 
but the fact remains, that neither man nor woman could utter a 
syllable for the Union in New Orleans in the hearing of the public, 
and live. A very few persons of pre-eminent standing in the city, 
like the noble Durant, and a few old men, who could not give up 
their country and the flag they had fought under in the days of 
their youth, were tolerated even with, ostentation — so firm in the 
saddle did secession feel itself. 

Even the foreign consuls were devoted secessionists ; all except 
Senor Ruiz, the Mexican consul. Reichard, the consul of Prussia, 
raised a battalion in the city, and led it to Virginia, where he rose 
to the rank of brigadier-general, having left in New Orleans, as 
acting-consul, Mr. Kruttsmidt, his partner, who had married a 
daughter of the rebel secretary of war. The other consuls, con- 
nected with secession by ties of business or matrimony, or both, 
were among the most zealous adherents of the Confederate cause. 
This is an important fact, when we consider that two-thirds of the 
business men were of foreign birth, and a vast proportion of the 
whole population were of French, Spanish, and German descent. 



THE PANIC IN NEW ORLEANS. 



255 



The double blockade — blockade above and blockade below — 
struck death to the commerce of New Orleans, a city created and 
sustained by commerce alone. How wonderful was that commerce ! 
The crescent bend of the river upon which the city stands, a wa\ 
ing line seven miles in extent, used to display the commercial activ- 
ity of the place to striking advantage. Cotton ships, eight or ten 
deep ; a forest of masts, denser than any but a tropical forest ; steam- 
boats in bewildering numbers, miles of them, puffing and hissing, 
arriving, departing, and threatening to depart, with great clangor 
of bells and scream of whistles ; cotton-bales piled high along the 
levee, as far as the eye could reach ; acres and acres covered with 
hogsheads of sugar ; endless flotillas of flat-boats, market-boats, and 
timber-rafts ; gangs of negroes at work upon every part of the levee, 
with loud chorus and outcry ; and a constant crowd of clerks, mer- 
chants, sailors, and bandanna-crowned negro women selling coffee, 
cakes, and fruit. It was a spectacle without parallel on the globe, 
because the whole scene of the city's industry was presented in one 
view. 

What a change was wrought by the mere announcement of the 
blockade! The cotton ships disappeared; the steamboats were 
laid away in convenient bayous, or departed up the river to return 
no more. The cotton mountains vanished ; the sugar acres were 
cleared. The cheerful song of the negroes was seldom heard, and 
grass grew on the vacant levee. The commerce of the city was 
dead ; and the forces hitherto expended in peaceful and victorious 
industry, were wholly given to waging war upon the power which 
had called that industry into being, defended it against the invader, 
protected and nourished it for sixty years, guiltless of wrong. Th^ 
young men enlisted in the army, compelling the reluctant stevedores, 
impressing with violence the foreign born. At the Exchange, books 
were opened for the equipment of privateers. For the first six 
months there was much running of the blockade, one vessel in three 
escaping, and the profit of the third paying for the two lost. Hoi- 
lins was busy in getting ready a paltry fleet of armed vessels for 
the destruction of the blockaders, and there was rare hammering 
upon rams and iron-clad steamboats. Seventeen hundred families 
meanwhile were daily supplied at the "free market." Look into one 
wholesale grocery store through the following advertisement : 

« We give notice to our friends generally, that we have been 



25(5 



THE PANIC m yEW ORLEANS. 



compelled to discontinue the grocery business, particularly for the 
reason that we have now no goods for sale, except a little L. F. salt. 
Persons ordering goods of us must send the cash to fill the order, 
unless they have money to their credit. Four of our partners and 
six of our clerks are in the army, and having sold out our stock of 
goods on credit, we have no money to buy more to be disposed of 
that way." 

A word or two upon the " Thugs" of New Orleans, the party 
controlling municipal affairs for some years past. New Yorkers are 
in a position to understand this matter with very little explanation, 
since the local politics of New Orleans and of New York present 
the same essential features, the same dire results of the fell principle 
of universal suffrage. Martin Van Buren predicted it all forty-two 
years ago, when opposing the admission to the polls of every man 
out of prison who was twenty-one years of age. He said then, 
what we now know to be true, that universal suffrage, in large 
commercial cities, would make those cities a dead weight upon the 
politics of the states to which they belong ; would repel from local 
politics the men who ought to control them ; would consign the 
cities to the tender mercies of the Dexterous Spoiler,* who could 
only be dethroned by bloody revolution. Is it not so ? Who is 
master of certain great cities but Dexterous Spoiler, supported by 
the dollars of Head Jew ? 

It must be so under universal suffrage. Here we have, say, ten 
thousand ignorant voters ; ignorant, many of them, of the very lan- 
guage of the country ; ignorant, most of them, of the art of reading 
it. These ten thousand are thirsty men, hangers-on of our six or 
seven thousand groggeries, the keepers of which are as completely 
the minions, and servants of Dexterous as though they were in his 
pay. New Yorkers know why this is so. Here, then, are sixteen 
or seventeen thousand votes to begin with, as capital-stock and 
basis of political business. Add to these five thousand of those 
lazy, thoughtless men in the carpeted spheres of life, who can never 
be induced to vote at all ; some even pluming themselves upon the 
fact. So there are twenty thousand votes or more, which Dexter 
ous can, in all cases, and in all weathers, count upon with absolute 
certainty. Then there are sundry other thousands who can only 
be got to the polls by moving heaven and earth ; which is an ex- 

* See Mr. Van Buren's argument in Parton's Life of Jackson, iii., 129. 



THE PANIC IN NEW ORLEANS. 



257 



pensive process, involving unlimited Roman candles and endless 
hirings of the Cooper Institute. The majority of these, in most 
elections, allow themselves to remain in the scale that weighs down 
struggling Decency. In a word, our Dexterous Spoiler, by his pos- 
session of the ten thousand votes which a justly restricted suffrage 
would exclude, controls the politics of the city. Probably, the mere 
exclusion of all voters who can not read would render the politics 
of cities manageable in the interests of Decency. In the absence 
of all restriction, the Spoiler must bear sway. 

As in New York, so in New Orleans ; only worse. The curse 
of universal suffrage in New York is mitigated by several circum- 
stances, which have hitherto sufficed to keep anarchy at bay. 
First, it is still true in New York, that when the issue is distinct 
and sole between Decency and Spoliation, and there has been the 
due moving of heaven and earth, the party of Decency can always 
secure a small majority of the whole number of votes. Secondly, 
one evening, about fifteen years ago, New York rowdyism fell, 
weltering in blood, in Astor Place, before the fire of the Seventh 
regiment. It has known three days of resurrection since, owing to 
a combination of causes never likely to be again combined. Third, 
New York has had the supreme happiness of rescuing its police 
from all control of the Spoiler. The police department has been 
taken out of politics, and has daily improved ever since, until 
now there is no better police in the world, and no city where the 
reign of order is more unbroken — where life and property are 
more secure. Again: the alliance between the Spoiler and the 
Banker compels the Spoiler to stop short of attempting the mani- 
festly anarchic. The Spoiler, too, has his moneys and his usances, 
and values the same. 

What New York would have been without its small, safe ma- 
jority on the side of Decency, without the Astor Place riot, and 
without the timidity of Wall street, that New Orleans was, for 
many years before the rebellion ; with all evil tendencies acceler- 
ated and aggravated by the presence of slavery. New Orleans was 
"he metropolis of the cotton kingdom, the receptacle of its wealth 
and of its refuse, the theater of its display and the pool of its 
abominations. 

N ow, the peculiarity of the cotton kingdom — that which chiefly 
distinguishes it from the other kingdoms of the earth, is this : In 



258 



THE PANIC IN NEW OELEANS. 



other kingdoms wickedness is committed, but- is admitted to be 
wickedness ; it is reprobated and warred upon ; it hides itself, 
and is ashamed. But the cotton kingdom distinctly, and in the 
hearing of the whole world, adopted wickedness as its portion and 
specialty. It did not say, Evil be thou our Good ; but our Evil is 
not evil ; it is good, beneficent, and even Divine. In the case of 
Cain versus Abel, the cotton kingdom, with the utmost possible 
clearness and decision, supported Cain. If the "difficulty" be- 
tween the brothers had occurred in the rotunda of the St. Charles 
hotel, Public Opinion would have clapped Cain on the back, and call- 
ed him a high-spirited, chivalrous young fellow, a worthy son of 
one of our first families. It was the unwritten law of New Orleans, 
that if one man said to another man an offensive word, the proper 
penalty was instant assassination ; which was precisely the princi- 
ple upon which Cain acted. In New Orleans, every man carried 
about his person the means of executing this law with certainty and 
dispatch. 

Doctor McCormick, of the United States army, medical director 
at New Orleans during General Butler's administration, familiar with 
the city in former years, related to me the following anecdote : — 

Time — about ten years before secession. Place — the Charity 
Hospital at New Orleans, in charge of Doctor McCormick. A 
friend from the North visited the doctor at the hospital, and went 
the rounds with him one morning. Among the patients were four 
men wounded in affrays during the previous evening and night ; 
two mortally, whose wounds the doctor dressed. The morning 
tour completed, the friends were leaving the building, when they 
met a man coming in who had been just stabbed in *he eye, in a 
street quarrel: The doctor dressed his wound, and again the friends 
turned to go. Before reaching the front-door, they met a man 
with four balls in his chest, received in an affray. His wounds 
were dressed, and the gentlemen then succeeded in making their 
escape. 

" Doctor," exclaimed the visitor, aghast, " is this common ?" 

" Not to this extent," replied the doctor, " not six a day. But 
two or three a day is common : that is about the daily average dur 
ing the season." 

"Well," said his friend, "this is no place for me. I meant tc 
stay a week ; but I leave New Orleans to-night." 



THE PANIC IN NEW ORLEANS. 



259 



Duels, too. Miss Martineau's " fifteen duels on one Sunday morn- 
ing" was probably no exaggeration. Doctor McCormick declared, 
that he has himself witnessed six in one day from a window of the 
United States barracks. He has seen men in mortal combat while 
driving along a road near the city with his wife ; seen them fight- 
ing as he passed ; seen the dead body of one of them as he returned. 

" What could the fools find to fight about ?" asks the incredulous 
northern reader. Hear a very competent witness : 

"Young men meet around the festive board. The wine-cup 
passes freely." The climate favors drinking ; men can drink three 
times the quantity of wine that a northern head can bear. " Con- 
versation becomes a confusion of unmeaning words. One declares 
that General Lopez was a patriot and martyr to the cause of free- 
dom and the world, and another that he was an adventurer, and in 
bowing his neck to the garrote, only paid the penalty of his rash- 
ness. One avers that Isabella Catholica, mother to the baby prince 
of the Asturias, is another Semiramis — worse only — having had 
Christian baptism. Another, with equal warmth, contends that this 
same queen-mother, patroness of all the bull-fights, and queen of the 
Antilles, is a wedded Yestal, more chaste than the icicle which 
hangs on Diana's temples, purer than Alpine snows. One cries, 
4 God save Spain's royal mistress ;' and another swears that an 
anointed Amazon, who rides a-straddle through the streets, shall 
have no vivas from him. A slap in the face ! The rising of the sun 
sees them on the battle-field, arrayed all in white. Under the 
spreading oaks of Gentilly, they crush the daisies beneath their feet, 
and brush the dew from the lilies that brightly blossom there. Is 
there none to whisper peace ? None. There is a click of the swift 
trigger, and a hiss of the leaden death ; a spring into the air ; a 
yell, a groan, a gurgling of the purple life-current ; and it is done ! 
What now ? Chains and a prison for the slayer ? Neither ; but 
honor and laudation for him who has had the bravery to kill."* 

" Honor and laudation," says our narrator, await the murderer. 
Even so. Let me relate one of Dr. McCormick's duel anecdotes ; he 
having witnessed the scenes he described, and assisted at them as 
attending surgeon. The events occurred near New Orleans — the 
paries well known there, all of them being men of wealth and great 
note in the cotton kingdom. Time, 1841. 

* New Orleans Delta, June 3d, 1868. 



260 



THE PANIC IN XEW ORLEANS. 



The principals were Colonel Augustus Alston, a graduate of 
West Point, and Colonel Lee Reed ; planters, both ; chief men of 
their county; politicians, of course. Long-standing, bitter feud 
between the families, aggravated by political aspirations and disap- 
pointments ; the whole county sympathizing with one or the other 
—eagerly, wildly sympathizing. The quarrel relieved the tedium 
of idleness; served instead of morning paper to the men, supplied 
the want of new novels to the women. At length, one of the Alston 
part}', on slight pretext, challenged Reed, which challenge Reed 
refused to accept ; no man but Alston for his pistol. Another 
Alstonian challenge, and yet another, he declined. Then Alston 
himself sent a challenge — Alston, the best shot in a state whose citi- 
zens cultivated the deadly art with the zeal of saints toiling after 
perfection. This challenge Lee instantly accepted. Weapon, the 
rifle, hair-trigger, ounce ball. Men to stand at twenty paces, back 
to back ; to wheel at the word One ; to fire as soon as they pleased 
after the word ; the second to continue counting as far as five ; 
after which, no firing. 

Lee was a slow, portly man — a good shot if he could fire in his 
own way without this preliminary wheeling. He regarded himself 
as a dead man ; he felt that he had no chance whatever of his life 
on such terms, not one in a thousand. He bought a coffin and a 
shroud, and arranged all his affairs for immediate death. The day 
before the duel, his second, a captain in the army, took him out of 
town and gave him a long drill in the wheel-and-fire exercise. 
The pupil was inapt — could not get the knack of wheeling. If he 
wheeled quickly, his aim was bad ; if he wheeled slowly, there 
was no need of his aiming at all, for his antagonist was as ready 
with heel as with trigger, from old training at West Point. 
"Lee," said the captain, " you must wheel quicker or you've no 
chance." Stimulated with this remark, Lee wheeled with velocity, 
and fired with such success as to bring down a neighbor riding 
along the road. 

Lee sent his coffin and shroud to the field. Mrs. Alston accompa- 
nied her husband. "I have come," she said, "to see Lee Reed shot." 

The men were placed, and the second counted one. In swiftly 
wheeling, the light cape of Alston's coat touched the hair-trigger, 
and his ball whistled over Reed's head, who stood amazed, with 
rifle half presented. The word two, recalled him to himself; he 



THE IN NEW 0ELEAX3. 



tired ; and Alston fell pierced through the heart. Mrs. Alston 
flew to her fallen husband, and found the ball which had slain him. 
In the sight and hearing of all the witnesses of the duel, her dead 
husband bleeding at her feet, she lifted up the ball, and with loud 
voice and fierce dramatic gesture, swore that that ball should kill 
Lee Keed. 

Xow, observe the conduct of the " chivalry" upon this occasion. 
Note the Public Opinion of that community. Were they touched 
by Lee's magnificent courage? Were they moved to gentler 
thoughts by Alston's just but lamentable end ? The Montagues 
and Capulets were reconciled over dead Juliet and Romeo : 

" brother Montague, give me thy hand; 
This is my daughter's jointure ; for no more 
Can I demand." 

"Not so, the chivalry of the South. In the afternoon, ten of the 
Alston party, headed by Willis Alston, brother of the deceased, 
drew themselves up, rifle in hand, bowie-knife and pistol in belt, 
before the hotel in which the adherents of Reed were assembled 
congratulating their chief. They sent in a messenger challenging 
ten of the Lee party to come forth and fight them in the public 
square. Much parleying ensued, which ended in the refusal of the 
Lees to accept the invitation. 

A few days after, Lee was seated at the table of the hotel, in 
the public dining-room, at which also sat men, ladies and children — 
a large number — Dr. McCormick among them. Willis Alston en- 
tered, took his stand opposite Lee, drew a pistol, and shot him 
through the liver. The wound was not mortal. After some months 
of confinement, Lee was well again, and went about as usual, the 
bloody-minded Alston still loose among the people. They met at 
length in the streets of the town, and Alston shot him again, in- 
flicting this time a mortal wound. 

Then, there was a hideous farce of a trial. Every man in the 
court-room, except two, was armed to the teeth. Those two 
were the judge, and the principal witness, Doctor McCormick. 
The jurymen an" had a rifle at their side in the jury-box — twelve 
men, twelve rifles. The prisoner had two enormous horse-pistols 
protruding from his vest. The spectators were all armed; th-i 
Lees to prevent a rescue in case of conviction, the Alstons to pro- 



262 



THE PANIC IN NEW ORLEANS. 



tect their man in case of acquittal. The counsel for the accused 
admitted that their client had shot the deceased, but contended that 
the wound then inflicted was not the cause of his death. Doctor 
McCormick was called, and took the stand amid the deepest silence, 
the prisoner glaring at him like the wild beast he was. 

" Is it your belief that the deceased came to his death from the 
wound inflicted by the prisoner at the bar ?" 

" I have no belief on the subject," replied the witness. " It is not 
a matter of belief, Out of fact. I know he did." 

That night, the trial not yet concluded, the prisoner deemed it 
best to escape from prison. Pie went to Texas ; met 0*1 a road 
there an old enemy, whom he shot dead in his saddle; and on 
reaching the next town, boasted of his exploit to the murdered 
man's friends and neighbors. Thirty of them seized him, tied him 
to a tree, and shot him, all the thirty firing at once, to divide the 
responsibility among them. And so the brute's career was fitly 
ended. 

Nor can we pity the murdered Reed, brave as he was ; for he, 
too, was a man of blood. They tell of an early duel of his so in- 
credibly savage, that, in comparison with it, General Jackson's little 
affair with Charles Dickinson seems the play of boys. Picture it. 
Two men standing sixty feet apart, back to back, each armed with 
two revolvers and a bowie knife. They are to wheel at the word, 
approach one another firing, fire as fast as they ''[.rose, advance 
as rapidly as they choose. Pistols failing, then the grapple and 
the knife. As it was arranged, so it was done. Lee fired his last 
charge, but his antagonist was still erect. The men were within 
six feet of one another, when Lee, bleeding fast from several wounds, 
collected his remaining strength, and threw his pistol, with despe- 
rate force in his antagonist's face, and felled him with the blow. 
Lee staggered forward, and fell upon him. Drawing his knife, he 
was seen feeling for the heart of his enemy, and having found it, he 
placed the point of the knife over it and tried to drive it home. 
He could not. Then holding the knife with one hand he tried to 
raise himself with the other, so as to fall upon the knife, and kill 
his adversary by mere gravitation. This amazing spectacle was too 
much even for the seconds in a southern duel, one of whom seized 
the man by the feet and drew him off. It was found that his an 
tagonist was dead where he lay ; but Lee recovered to figure in 



THE PANIC IN NEW OELEANS. 



263 



another of these savage conflicts, and to die by violence in the 
streets. 

We may ask, with Dr. McCormick's friend, " Were such things 
common in the 4 cotton kingdom ?' " The doctor's answer will suf- 
fice : " Not to this extent ;" but scenes like these were common ; 
and the spirits, the habits, the cast of character, which gave rise to 
them, were all but universal. What, then, must New Orleans have 
been, the chief city of that kingdom, with a police subject to the 
city government, the city government controlled by " Thugs," and 
the " Thugs" managed by the Spoiler, in alliance with the money- 
changer ? 

We return to the morning of April 24th, on which the Union 
fleet ran past the forts. 

Never before were the people of New Orleans so confident of a 
victorious defense, as when they read in the newspapers of that 
morning the brief report of General Duncan, touching the twenty- 
five thousand ineffectual shells. Always the city had implicitly 
relied on its defenses ; but, after six days of vain bombardment, the 
confidence of the people was such that news from below had ceased 
to be very interesting, and every one went about his business as 
though nothing unusual was going on. 

At half-past nine in the morning, late risers still dawdling over 
their coffee and Delta, the bell of one of the churches, which had 
been designated as the alarm bell, struck the concerted signal of 
alarm — twelve strokes four times repeated. It was the well-known 
summons for all armed bodies to assemble It their head-quarters 
There was a wild rush to the newspaper bulletin-boards. 

" It is reported that two of the enemy's gun-boats have 
succeeded in passing the forts." 

This was all that came over the wires before Captain Farragut 
cut them ; but it was enough to give New Orleans a dismal pre- 
monition of the coming catastrophe. The troops flew to their re 
spective rendezvous. The city was filled with rumors. The whole 
population was in the streets all day. The bulletin-boards were 
besieged, but nothing more could be extracted from them. There 
were but twenty-eight hundred Confederate troops in the city ; and 
b-eneral Lovell, their commander, had gone down to the forts the 
day before, and was now galloping back along the levee like a man 
riding a steeple-chase. The militia, however, were numerous ; con- 



264 



THE PANIC IN NEW ORLEANS. 



spicuous among them the European Brigade, composed of French, 
English and Spanish battalions. A fine regiment of free colored 
men was on duty also. But, in the absence of the general, and 
the uncertainty of the intelligence, nothing was done or could be 
done, but assemble and wait, and increase the general alarm by the 
spectacle of masses of troops. 

The newspapers of the afternoon could add nothing to the intel- 
ligence of the morning. But, at half-past two, General Lovell 
arrived, bringing news that the Union fleet had passed the forts, 
destroyed the Confederate gun-boats, and was approaching the 
city. Then the panic set in. Stores were hastily closed, and many 
were abandoned without closing. People left their houses forget- 
ting to shut the front-door, and ran about the streets without ap- 
parent object. There was a fearful beating of drums, and a run- 
ning together of soldiers. Women were seen bonnetless, with pistol 
in each hand, crying : " Burn the city. Never mind us. Burn the 
city." Officers rode about impressing carts and drays to remove 
the cotton from store-houses to the levee for burning. Four mil- 
lions of specie were carted from the banks to the railroad stations, 
and sent out of the city. The consulates were filled with people, 
bringing their valuables to be stored under the protection of foreign 
flags. Traitor Twiggs made haste to fly, leaving his swords to the 
care of a young lady — the swords voted him by Congress and legis- 
lature for services in Mexico. Other conspicuous traitors followed 
his prudent example. The authorities, Confederate and municipal, 
were at their wit's eifd. Shall the troops remain and defend the 
city, or join the army of Beauregard at Corinth ? It was concluded 
to join Beauregard ; at least to get out of the city, beyond the gun? 
of the fleet, and so save the city from bombardment. Some thou- 
sands of the militia, it appears, left with the t wenty-eight hundred 
Confederate troops, choking the avenues of escape with multitudi- 
nous vehicles. Other thousands remained, doffing their uniforms, 
exchanging garments even with negroes, and returned to their 
homes. The regiment of free colored men would not leave the city 
— a fact which was remembered, some months later, to their ad 
vantage. 

At such a time could the Thugs be inactive ? To keep them in 
check, to save the city from conflagration and plunder, the mayor 
called upon the European brigade, and placed the city under theii 



\ 



THE PANIC IN NEW ORLEANS. 



265 



charge. They accepted the duty, repressed the tumult, and pre- 
vented the destruction of the town, threatened alike by frenzied 
women and spoliating rowdies. 

So passed the afternoon of Thursday, April 24th. I indicate only 
the leading* features of the scene. The reader must imagine the 
rest, if he can. Only those who have seen a large city suddenly 
driven mad with apprehension and rage,/can form an adequate con- 
ception of the confusion, the hurry, the bewilderment, the terror, 
the fury, that prevailed. Such denunciations of Duncan, of the 
governor of the state, of the general in command ! Such maledic 
tions upon the Yankees ! Such a strife between those who wished 
New Orleans to be another Moscow, and those who pleaded for the 
homes of fifty thousand women and children ! Such a hunting 
down of the few Union men and women, who dared to display 
their exultation ! Such a threatening of instant lamp-post, or swifter 
pistol bullet, to any who should so much as look at a Yankee with- 
out a scowl! Woe, woe, to the man who should give them the 
slightest semblance of aid or sympathy ! Hail, yellow fever ! once 
the dreaded scourge of New Orleans; more welcome now than the 
breezes of October after a summer of desolation! Come, De- 
stroyer ; come, and blast these hated foes of a sublime southern 
chivalry ! Come, though we also perish ! 

During the evening of Thursday, before it was known whether 
the batteries at Chalmette could retard the upward progress of the 
fleet, the famous burning of cotton and ships began : fifteen thou- 
sand bales of cotton on the levee ; twelve or fifteen cotton ships, in 
the river ; fifteen or twenty river steamboats ; an unfinished ram 
of great magnitude ; the dry-docks ; vast heaps of coal ; vaster 
stores of steamboat wood ; miles of steamboat wood ; ship timber ; 
board yards; whatever was supposed to be of use to Yankees; all 
m was set on fire, and the heavens were black with smoke. Hogs- 
heads of sugar and barrels of molasses were stove in by hundreds 
Parts of the levee ran molasses. Thousands of negroes and pooi 
white people were carrying off the sugar in aprons, pails, and 
baskets. And, as if this were not enough, the valiant governoi 
of Louisiana fled away up the river in the swiftest steamboat he 
could find, spreading alarm as he went, and issuing proclamations, 
calling on the planters to burn every bale of cotton in the state 
which the ruthless invaders could reach. 



266 



THE PANIC IN NEW ORLEANS. 



" If," said he, " you are resolved to be free ; if you are worthy 
of the heroic blood that has come down to you through hallowed 
generations ; if you have fixed your undimmed eyes upon the bright- 
ness that is spread out before you and your children, and are deter 
mined to shake away for ever all political association with the 
venal hordes that now gather like a pestilence about your fair cour • 
try; nosv, my fellow-citizens, is the time to strike." He meant 
strike a light ; for he continues thus : " One sparkling, living torch 
of fire, for one hour, in manly action upon each other's plantation, 
and the eternal seal of southern independence is fired and fixed in 
the great heart of the world." 

This sublime effusion had its effect, supported as it was by the 
presence of the Union fleet in the sacred river. Hence, as we are 
officially informed, two hundred and fifty thousand bales of cotton 
were consumed, during the next few days, in a region already im- 
poverished by the war. Not a pound of this cotton was in dangei 
of seizure ; it was safer after the fall of the city than before. 

About twelve o'clock, the fleet hove in sight of assembled ISTew 
Orleans. The seven miles of crescent levee were one living fringe 
of human beings, who looked upon the coming ships with inex- 
pressible sorrow, shame, and anger. Again the cry arose, burn 
the city ; a cry that might have been obeyed but for the known 
presence and determination of the European brigade. The people 
were given over to a strong delusion, the result of two generations 
of De Bow falsehood and Calhoun heresy. That fleet, if they had 
but known it, was Deliverance, not Subjugation ; it was to end, not 
begin, the reign of terror and of wrong. The time will come when 
"New Orleans will know this ; when the anniversary of this day will 
be celebrated with thankfulness and joy, and statues of Farragut 
and Butler will adorn the public places of the city. But before 
that time comes, what years of wise and heroic labor ! The fleet 
drew near and cast anchor in the stream, the crowd looking on 
some in sullen silence, many uttering yells of execration, a few se 
cretly rejoicing, all deeply moved. 



NEW ORLEANS WILL NOT SURRENDER. 



267 



CHAPTER XV. 

NEW ORLEANS WILL NOT SURRENDER. 

Captain Farragut's fleet emerged from the hurly-burly of the 
fight on the morning of the 24th, into a beautiful and tranquil 
scene. Soon after leaving quarantine, the sugar plantations, with 
their villas girdled with pleasant verandas, and surrounded with 
trees, each with its village of negro huts near by, appeared on both 
sides of the river. The canes were a foot high, and of the bright- 
est April green, rendered more vivid by the background of forest 
a mile from the river. Except that a white flag or rag was hung 
from many of the houses, and, in some instances, a torn and faded 
American flag, a relic of better times, there was little to remind the 
voyagers that they were in an enemy's country. Here and there a 
white man was seen waving a Union flag ; and occasionally a ges- 
ture of defiance or contempt was discerned. The negroes who 
were working in the fields in great numbers — in gangs of fifty, a 
hundred, two hundred — these alone gave an unmistakable welcome 
to the ships. They would come running down to the levee in 
crowds, hoe in hand, and toss their battered old hats into the air, 
and shout, sing and caper in their wild picturesque fashion. Other 
gangs, held under stronger control, kept on their work without so 
much as looking at the passing vessels, unless it might be that one 
or two of them, watching their chance, would wave a hand or hat, 
and straight to hoe again. 

None of those batteries with which the river was said to be 
" lined," were discovered. At three o'clock the ships were off Point 
la Hache, which had been reported to be impassably fortified. No 
guns were there. On the contrary, on a plantation near by thirty 
plows were going, and two hundred negroes came to the shore in 
the highest glee, to greet the ships. "Hurrah for Abraham," cried 
one. At eight o'clock in the evening, at a point eighteen miles be- 
low the city, the fleet came to anchor for the night. The city was 
not more than half that distance in a straight line, and consequently, 
the prodigious volumes of smoke from the burning cotton were 
12 



'268 NEW ORLEANS WILL NOT SURRENDER. 

plainly seen, exciting endless speculation in the minds of officers 
and crew. Perhaps another Moscow. TvTio knows? Nothing 
is too mad for secesh ; secession itself being madness. 

At midnight, an alarm ! Three large fires ahead, concluded to 
be fire-rafts. Up anchor, all! The vessels cruised cautiously 
about in the river for an hour or two ; Captain Farragut not caring 
to venture higher in an unexplored river, said to be lined with bat- 
teries. The fires proved to be stationary ; and when the fleet pass- 
ed them the next morning, they were discovered to be three large 
cotton ships burning — their blockade-running ended thus for ever. 

At Chalmette, Jackson's old battle-ground, now but three miles 
below the city, the river really was " lined" with batteries ; i. e.. 
there was a battery on each side of the river, each mounting eight 
or ten old guns. The signal to engage them was made the moment 
they came in sight. The leading ships were twenty minutes under 
fire before they could return it ; but then a few broadsides of shell 
and grape drove the unsheltered foe from the works, with the loss 
of one man in the fleet knocked overboard by the wind of a ball, 
and our Herald friend hit with a splinter, but not harmed. " It 
was what I call," says Captain Farragut, " one of the little ele- 
gancies of the profession — a dash and a victory." 

Round the bend at noon, into fall view of the vast sweep of the 
Crescent City. What a scene ! Fires along the shore farther than 
the eye could reach ; the river full of burning vessels ; the levee 
lined with madmen, whose yells and defiant gestures showed 
plainly enough what kind of welcome awaited the new-comers. 
A faint cheer for the Union, it is said, rose from one part of the 
levee, answered by a volley of pistol-shots from the by-standers. 
As the fleet dropped anchor in the stream, a thunder-storm of 
tropical violence burst over the city, which dissolved large masses 
of the crowd, and probably reduced, in some degree, the frenzy of 
those who remained. 

The banks, the stores, all places of business were closed in the 
city. The mayor, by formal proclamation, had now invested the 
European Brigade, under General Juge, " with the duty of watch- 
ing over the public tranquillity; patrols of whom should be treated 
with respect, and obeyed." General Juge and his command saved 
the city from plunder and anarchy — probably from universal con- 
flagration. Night and day they patrolled the city ; and the gene 



\ 



!XEW 0ELEA2TS "WILL NOT SUEEEXDEE. 



ral, by personal entreaty and public proclamation, induced some of 
the butchers and grocers to open their shops. A fear of starvation 
was added to the other horrors of the time ; for the country 
people feared to approach the city, and. the markets were alarm- 
ingly bare of provisions. And then the Confederate currency — 
would that be of any value under the rule of the United States ? 
" It is as good now as it ever has been," said the mayor, in one of 
his half-dozen proclamations, " and there is no reason to reject it ;" 
but "those who hold Confederate currency, and wish to part with 
it, may have it exchanged for city bills, by applying to the Com- 
mittee of Public Safety." Another proclamation called upon those 
who had carried off sugar from the levee to bring it back ; anothe- 
promised a free market and abundant provisions on Monday ; 
another desired the provision dealers to re-open their stores ; 
another urged the people to be calm, and trust the authorities with 
their welfare and their honor. 

At one o'clock, the fleet was anchored. The rain was falling in 
torrents, but the crowd near the Custom-House was still dense and 
fierce, the rain having melted away the softer elements. A boat 
put off from the flag-ship — man-of-war's boat, trim and tidy, crew 
in fresh tarpaulins and clean shirts, no flag of truce flying. In the 
stern sat three officers, Captain Bailey, second in command of the 
fleet, Lieutenant Perkins, his companion in the errand upon which 
he was sent, and Acting-Master Morton in charge of the boat. Just 
after the boat put off, a huge thing of a ram Mississippi, pierced 
for twenty guns, a kind of monster Merrhnac, or fortified N"oah*s 
Ark, came floating down the river past the fleet, wrapped in flames. 
At another time the spectacle would have been duly honored by 
the fleet, but at that moment every eye was upon Captain Bailey's 
boat, nearing the crowd on the levee. 

We all remember the greeting bestowed upon this officer. It 
was by no means that which a conquered city usually confers upon 
the conqueror. Deafening cheers for " Jeff. Davis and the South; 1 '' 
thundering groans for " Lincoln and his fleet ;" sudden hustling and 
collaring of two or three men who dared cheer for the "old flag." 
Captain Bailey and Lieutenant Perkins, however, stepped 01 shore, 
and announced their desire to see the mayor of the city. A few 
respectable persons in the crowd had the courage to offer to con- 
duct them to the City Hall, under whose escort the officers starred 



270 



NEW ORLEANS WILL NOT SURRENDER. 



on 'their perilous journey, followed and surrounded by a yelling, in- 
furiated multitude, regardless of the pouring rain. " No violence," 
says a Delta reporter, " was offered to the officers, though certain 
persons who were suspected of favoring their nag and cause were 
set upon with great fury, and roughly handled. On arriving at the 
City Hall, it required the intervention of several citizens to prevent 
violence being offered to the rash embassadors of an execrated dy- 
nasty and government." 

Mayor Monroe is a gentleman of slight form and short stature ; 
he was not equal to the exceedingly perplexing situation in which 
he found himself. Supported, however, by the presence of several 
of the " city fathers," as he styled them, and aided by the talents 
of Mr. Soule, he performed his part in the curious interview with 
tolerable dignity. While the colloquy proceeded, the City Hall 
was surrounded by an ever growing crowd, whose cheers for Jeff. 
Davis and groans for " Abe Lincoln" served as loud accompaniment 
to the mild discord within the building. Captain Bailey and his 
companion were duly presented to the mayor, and courteous salu- 
tations were exchanged between them. 

"I have been sent," said the captain, "by Captain Farragut, 
commanding the United States fleet, to demand the surrender of 
the city, and the elevation of the flag of the United States over the 
Custom-House, the Mint, the Post-Office, and the City Hall." 

"I am not," replied the mayor, "the military commander of the 
city. I have no authority to surrender it, and would not do so if I 
had. There is a military commander now in the city. I will send 
for him to receive and reply to your demand." 

A messenger was accordingly dispatched for General Lovell, 
who, though he had sent off his. troops, remained in the town, a 
train waiting with steam up to convey him and his staff to camp. 

Polite conversation ensued between the officers and the gentle- 
men in the office of the mayor, with fitful yell accompaniment from 
the outside crowd. The officers praised with warm sincerity the 
stout defense made by the forts, and the headlong valor with which 
the rebel fleet had hurled itself against the Union ships. Captain 
Bailey regretted the wholesale destruction of property in the city, 
and said that Captain Farragut deplored it no less than himself. 
To this the mayor replied, not with the courtesy of his monitor^ 
Mr. Soule, that the property being their own, the destruction of it 



jmW ORLEANS WILL NOT SUEEENDEE. 



271 



did not concern outsiders. Captain Bailey remarked that it looked 
to him like biting off your nose to spite your face. The mayor in- 
timated that he took a different view of the subject. 

Cheers from the mob announced the arrival of General Lovell; 
who soon entered the office. The officers were presented to him. 

" I am General Lovell," said he, " of the army of the Confederate 
States, commanding this department." 

Whereupon he shook hands with the Union officers. Captain 
Bailey repeated the demand with which he had been charged, add- 
ing that he was instructed by Captain Farragut to say, that he 
had come to protect private property and personal rights, and had 
no design to interfere with any private rights, and especially not 
with negro property. 

General Lovell replied that he would not surrender the city, 
nor allow it to be surrendered ; that he was overpowered on the 
water by a superior squadron, but that he intended to fight on land 
as long as he could muster a soldier ; he had marched all of his 
armed men out of the city ; had evacuated it ; and if they desired to 
shell the town, destroying women and children, they could do so. 
T t was to avoid this that he had marched his troops beyond the 
city limits, but a large number even of the women of the city 
had begged him to remain and defend the city even against shell- 
ing. He did not think he would be justified in doing so. He 
vrould therefore retire and leave the city authorities to pursue what 
course they should think proper. 

Captain Bailey said, that nothing was farther from Captain Far- 
ragufs thoughts than to shell a defenseless town filled with women 
and children. On the contrary, he had no hostile intentions to- 
ward Xew Orleans, and regretted extremely the destruction of 
property that had already occurred. 

" It was done by my authority sir," interrupted General Lovell. 
He might have added that his own cotton was the first to be fired. 

It was then concluded that the Union officers should return to 
the fleet, and the mayor would lay the matter before the common 
council, and report the result to Captain Farragut. Captain Bailey 
requested protection during their return to the levee, the crowd 
being evidently in no mood to allow their peaceful departure. The 
general detailed two of his officers to accompany them, and went 
himself to harangue the multitude. Mr. Soule also addressed the 



272 



NEW ORLEANS WILL NOT SURRENDER. 



people, counseling moderation and dignity. The naval officers 
meanwhile were conducted to the rear of the building, where a car- 
riage was procured for them, and they were driven rapidly to their 
boat. The crew were infinitely relieved by their arrival, for during 
the long period of their absence, the crowd had assailed them with 
every epithet of abuse, to which the only possible reply was silence. 
The officers stepped on board, and were soon alongside of the flag- 
ship, the parting yell of the mob still ringing in their ears. At the 
same time General Lovell was making his way to the cars, and was 
seen in New Orleans no more. 

Captain Farragut was a little amused and very much puzzled at 
the singular position in which he found himself. There was nothing 
further to be clone, however, until he heard from the mayor. All 
hands were tired out. New Orleans, too, was exhausted with the 
excitement of the last three days. So, both the fleet and the city 
enjoyed a night more tranquil than either had known for some 
time. "The city was as peaceful and quiet as a country hamlet — 
much quieter than in ordinary times," said the Picayune the next 
morning. 

April 26th, Saturday, at half-past six, a boat from shore reached 
the flag-ship, containing the mayor's secretary and chief of police, 
bearers of a message from the mayor. The mayor said the common 
council would meet at ten that morning, the result of whose deliber- 
ations should be promptly submitted to Captain Farragut. The 
captain, not relishing the delay, still less the events of yesterday, 
sent a letter to the mayor recapitulating those events, and again 
stating his determination to respect private rights. " I, therefore, 
demand of you," said the flag-officer, " as its representative, the un- 
qualified surrender of the city, and that the emblem of the sove- 
reignty of the United States be hoisted over the City Hall, Mint 
and Custom-House, by meridian this day, and all flags and other 
emblems of sovereignty other than that of the United States be 
removed from all the public buildings by that hour. I particularly 
request that you shall exercise your authority to quell disturbances, 
restore order, and call upon all the good people of New Orleans to 
return at once to their avocations ; and I particularly demand that no 
person shall be molested in person or property for sentiments of loy- 
alty to their government. I shall speedily and severely punish any 
person or persons who shall commit such outrages as were witnessed 



NEW ORLEANS WILL NOT SURRENDER. 



273 



yesterday, of armed men firing upon helpless women and children 
for giving expression to their pleasure at witnessing the ' old flag.'" 

This demand of Captain Farragut, that the enemy should them- 
selves hoist the Union flag, gave the mayor, aided by Mr. Soule, an 
opportunity to make an advantageous reply. 

The common council met in the course of the morning. Besides 
relating the interview with Captain Bailey, the mayor favored the 
council with his opinion upon the same. "My own opinion is," 
said he, " that as a civil magistrate, possessed of no military power, 
I am incompetent to perform a military act, such as the surrender 
of the city to a hostile force ; that it would be proper to say, in re- 
ply to a demand of that character, that we are without military 
protection, that the troops have withdrawn from the city, that we 
are consequently incapable of making any resistance, and that, 
therefore, we can offer no obstruction to the occupation of the Mint, 
the Custom-House and the Post-Office ; that these are the property 
of the Confederate government ; that we have no control over them; 
and that all acts involving a transfer of property must be performed 
by the invading force — by the enemy themselves ; that we yield to 
physical force alone, and that we maintain our allegiance to the 
Confederate government. Beyond this, a due respect for our dig- 
nity, our rights, and the flag of our country, does not, I think, per- 
mit us to go." 

Upon receiving this message, the common council unanimously 
adopted the following resolutions : 

" WTiereas, the common council of the city of New Orleans, hav- 
ing been advised by the military authorities that the city is inde- 
fensible, declare that no resistance will be made to the forces of the 
United States ; 

" Resolved, That the sentiments expressed in the message of his 
honor the mayor to the common council, are in perfect accordance 
with the sentiments entertained by the entire population of this 
metropolis ; and that the mayor be respectfully requested to act in 
the spirit maDifested by the message." 

While waiting for the deliberations of the council, Captain Farra- 
gut went up the river, seven miles, to Carrollton, where batteries 
had been erected to defend the city from an attack from above. 
He found them deserted, the guns spiked, and the gun-carriages 
bu ruing. 



274 



NEW ORLEANS WILL NOT SURRENDER. 



April 27th, Sunday. — An eventful clay; to one unhappy man, a 
fatal day. The early morning brought the mayor's reply co Cap- 
tain Farragut : " I am no military man, and possess no authority 
beyond that of executing the municipal laws of the city of New „ 
Orleans. It would be presumptuous in me to attempt to lead an 
army to the field, if I had one at command ; and I know still less 
how to surrender an undefended place, held, as this is, at the mercy 
©f your gunners and your mortars. To surrender such a place 
were an idle and unmeaning ceremony. The city is yours by the 
power of brutal force, not by my choice or the consent of its in- 
habitants. It is for you to determine what will be the fate that 
awaits us here. As to hoisting any flag not of our own adoption 
and allegiance, let me say to you that the man lives not in our 
midst whose hand and heart would not be paralyzed at the mere 
thought of such an act ; nor could I find in my entire constituency 
so desperate and wretched a renegade as would dare to profane 
with his hand the sacred emblem of our aspirations."" With more 
of similar purport. The substance of the mayor's meaning seemed 
to be : " Come on shore and hoist what flags you please. Don't 
ask us to do your flag-raising." A rather good reply — in the sub- 
stance of it. Slightly impudent, perhaps ; but men who are talk- 
ing from behind a bulwark of fifty thousand women and children, 
can be impudent if they please. 

The commander of the fleet refused to confer farther with the 
mayor ; but, with regard to the flag-hoisting, determined to take 
him at his word. Captain Morris, of the Pensacola, the ship that 
lay off the Mint, was ordered to send a party ashore, and hoist the 
flag of the United States upon that edifice. At eight in the morn- 
ing, the stars and stripes floated over it once more. The officer 
. commanding the party warned the by-standers that the guns of the 
Pensacola would certainly open fire upon the building if any one 
should be seen molesting the flag. Without leaving a guard to 
protect it, he returned to his ship, and the howitzers in the main- 
top of the Pensacola, loaded with grape, were aimed at the flag- 
staff, and the guard ordered to fire the moment any one should 
attempt to haul down the flag. I think it was an error to leave 
the flag unprotected. A company of marines could have kept the 
mob at bay ; would have prevented the shameful scenes that fol 
lowed. 



IX EW OELEANS will not sueeendee. 



2 75 



At eleven o'clock, the crews of all the ships were assembled 
on deck for prayers : " to render thanks," as the order ran, " to 
Almighty God for His great goodness and mercy in permitting us 
to pass through the events of the last two days with so little loss 
of life and blood." As the clouds threatened rain, the gunner of 
the Pensacola, just before taking his place for the ceremony, 
removed from the guns the " wafers" by which they are discharged. 
One look-out man was left in the main-top, who held the strings of 
the howitzers in his hand, and kept a sharp eye upon the flag-staff 
of the Mint. The solemn service proceeded for twenty minutes, 
with such emotions on the part of those brave men as may be ima- 
gined, not related. 

A discharge from the howitzers overhead, startled the crew from 
their devotions ! They rushed to quarters. Every eye sought the 
flag-staff of the Mint. Four men were seen on the roof of the build- 
ing, who tore down the flag, hurried away with it, and disappeared. 
Without orders, by an impulse of the moment, the cords of the 
guns all along the broadside were snatched at by eager hands. 
Nothing but the chance removal of the wafers saved the city from a 
fearful scene of destruction and slaughter. The exasperation of 
the fleet at this audacious act, was such that, at the moment, an 
order to shell the town would have seemed a natural and proper 
one. • 

New Orleans hailed it with vociferous acclamations. " The names 
of the party," said the Picayune of the next morning, " that dis- 
tinguished themselves by gallantly tearing down the flag that had 
been surreptitiously hoisted, we learn, are W. B. Mumford, who 
cut it loose from the flag-staff amid the shower of grape, Lieuten- 
ant N. Holmes, Sergeant Burns and James Reed. They deserve 
great credit for their patriotic act. New Orleans, in this hour 
of adversity, by the calm dignity she displays in the presence 
of the enemy, by the proof she gives of her unflinching deter- 
mination to sustain to the uttermost the righteous cause for 
which she has done so much and made such great sacrifices, 
by her serene endurance undismayed of the evil which afflicts 
her, and her abiding confidence in the not distant coming of 
better and brighter days — of speedy deliverance from the ene- 
my's toils — is showing a bright example to her sister cities, and 
proving herself, in all respects, worthy of the proud position 
12* 



276 



NEW ORLEANS WILL NOT SURRENDER. 



she has achieved. We glory in being a citizen of this great me- 
tropolis." 

" Calm dignity !" quotha ? The four men having secured their 
prize, trailed it in the mud of the streets amid the yells of the mob ; 
mounted with it upOn a furniture car and paraded it about the city 
with fife and drum ; tore it, at last, into shreds, and distributed the 
pieces among the crowd. Such was the calm dignity of New Or- 
leans. S.ich the valor of ruffians protected by a rampart of fifty 
thousand women and children. 

Captain Farragut was equally indignant and embarrassed. Sel- 
dom has a naval commander found himself in a position so beset 
with contradictions — defied and insulted by a town that lay at his 
mercy. A few hours after these events, General Butler arrived to 
share the exasperation of the fleet and join in the counsels of its 
chief. He advised the captain to threaten the city with bom- 
bardment, and to order away the women and children. Captain 
Farragut, in part, adopted the measure, and sent a communication 
to the mayor warning him of the peril which the city incurred by 
such scenes as those of Sunday morning. He informed him of the 
danger of drawing from the fleet a destructive fire, by the spon- 
taneous action of the men. " The election is with you," he con- 
cluded, "but it becomes my duty to Dotify you to remove the 
women and children from the city within forty-eight hours, if I 
have rightly understood your determination^ The authorities of 
the city chose to interpret this note as a formal announcement of a 
bombardment at the expiration of the specified period. So, at least, 
they represented it to Captain De Clouet, commanding a French 
man of war which had just arrived before the city. That officer 
thought it his duty to demand a longer time for the removal of the 
women and children. "Sent by my government," he wrote to 
Captain Farragut, " to protect the persons and property of its citi- 
zens, who are here to the number of thirty thousand, I regret to 
learn at this moment that you have accorded a delay of forty-eight 
hours for the evacuation of the city by the women and children. 
I venture to observe to you that this short delay is ridiculous ; and, 
in the name of my government, I oppose it. If it is your resolu- 
tion to bombard the city, do it; but I wish to state that you will 
have to account for the barbarous act to the power which I repre- 
sent. Tn any event, I demand sixty days for the evacuation." 



JSTEW ORLEANS WILL NOT SUEEEJODER. 



211 



Captain Farragut and General Butler had visited Captain De 
Clouet on his arrival, and had received from him polite congratula- 
tions upon the success of the expedition. It was no fault of his 
that Captain Farragut's notification was so egregiously misunder- 
stood. 

General Butler meanwhile perceiving that light-draft steamers 
were not to be had, and that nothing elfectual could be done with 
out landing a force in the city, hastened down the river to attempt 
the reduction of the forts with such means as he could command. 
Before leaving, however, he had the satisfaction of receiving the 
spy, engaged at Washington many weeks before, who had escaped 
in the confusion, and brought full details of the condition of the 
city. Mr. Summers, too, once recorder of New Orleans, fled on 
board one of the ships from the violence of a mob in whose hearing 
he had declared his attachment to the Union. A lady, also, came 
oif, and delivered a paper of intelligence and congratulation. 

On his way down the river, General Butler met the glad tidings 
of the surrender of the forts, and had the pleasure, on the 28th, of 
walking over them with Captain Porter among the joyful troops. 
Colonel Jones, of the Twenty-sixth Massachusetts, was appointed to 
command the garrison, and Lieutenant Weitzel began forthwith to 
put the forts in repair. All the rest of the troops were ordered up the 
river with the utmost speed. General Phelps was already at the 
forts, and the transports from Sable Island were making their way 
under General Williams to the mouth of the river. 

The news of the surrender of the forts, which reached the fleet 
on Monday, relieved Captain Farragut from embarrassment. He 
could now afford to wait, if New Orleans could, though the fleet 
still beheld with impatience the flauntings of the rebel flags. Gen- 
eral Duncan, that day, harangued the crowd upon the levee, declar- 
ing, " with tears in his eyes," that nothing but the mutiny of part 
of his command could have induced him to surrender. But fo 
that, he could and would have held out for months. " He crie> 
like a child," says one report. The tone of the authorities appeared 
to be somewhat lowered by the news. They dared not formally 
disclaim the exploit of Mumford and his comrades ; but Captain 
Farragut was privately assured that the removal of the flag from 
the Mint was the unauthorized act of a few individuals. On the 
29th. Captain Bell, with a hundred marines, landed on the levee, 



278 



NEW ORLEANS WILL NOT SURRENDER. 



marched into the city, hauled down the Confederate flag from the 
Mint and Custom-House, and hoisted in its stead the flag of the 
United States. Captain Bell locked the Custom-House and took the 
keys to his ship. These flags remained, though the marines were 
withdrawn before evening. 

The work of the European Brigade was approaching a conclu- 
sion. The portion of it called the British Guard, composed o^ un- 
naturalized Englishmen — unnatural Englishmen, rather — voted at 
their armory, a day or two after, to send their weapons, accouter 
ments and uniforms to General Beauregard's army, as a slight token 
of their affection for the Confederate States. Some of these "neu- 
tral" gentlemen had occasion to regret this step before the month 
of May was ended. 

There was a general coming up the river, who had the peculiar 
ity of feeling toward the rebellion that the rebel leaders felt toward 
the government they had betrayed. He hated it. He meant to do 
his part toward putting it down by the strong hand, not conciliating 
it by insincere palaver. The reader is requested to bear in mind 
this peculiarity, for it is the key to the understanding of General 
Butler's administration. Consider always that his attachment to 
the Union and the flag was of the same intense and uncompro- 
mising nature, as the devotion of South Carolinians to the cause of 
the Confederacy. His was indeed a nobler devotion, but in mere 
warmth and entireness, it resembled the zeal of secessionists. He 
meant well to the people of Louisiana ; he did well by them ; but 
it was his immovable resolve that the ruling power in Louisiana 
henceforth should be the United States, which had bought, de- 
fended, protected, and enriched it. Think what secessionists would 
have done in ~New Orleans, if it had remained true to the Union, 
and fallen into their hands in the second year of the war. That 
General Butler did ; only, with exactest justice, with ideal purity ; 
employing all right methods of conciliation ; rigorous only to secure 
the main object — the absolute, the unquestioned supremacy of the 
United States. 



LANDING IN NEW ORLEANS. 279 



CHAPTER XVI. 

LANDING IN NEW ORLEANS. 

The troops had a joyful trip up the river among the verdant 
sugar-fields, welcomed, as the fleet had "been, by capering negroes. 
The transport Mississippi, with her old complement of fourteen 
hundred men, and Mrs. Butler on the quarter-deck, hove in sight 
of the forts at sunset on the last day of April. The forts were cov- 
ered all over with blue-coated soldiers, who paused in their investi- 
tures to cheer the arriving vessels, and, especially, the Lady who 
had borne them company in so many perils. It was an animated 
and glorious scene, illumined by the setting sun ; one of those in- 
toxicating moments which repay soldiers for months of fatigue 
and waiting. The general came on board, and, at midnight, the 
transport steamers started for the city. At noon on the 1st of May, 
the Mississippi lay alongside the levee at New Orleans. 

A crowd rapidly gathered ; but it was by no means as turbulent 
or noisy as that which had howled at Captain Bailey five days be- 
fore. There were women among them, many of whom appeared to 
be nurses carrying children. Mulatto women with baskets of cakes 
and oranges were also seen. Voices were frequently heard calling 
for " Picayune Butler," who was requested to " show himself," and 
"come ashore." The general, who is fond of a joke, requested 
Major Strong to ascertain if any of the bands could play the lively 
melody to which the mob had called his attention. Unluckily, 
none of the bandmasters possessed the music ; so the general was 
obliged to forego his joke, and fall back upon Yankee Doodle and 
the Star Spangled Banner. Others of the crowd cried: "You'll 
never see home again." " Yellow Jack will have you before long." 
" Halloo, epaulets, lend us a picayune." With divers other remarks 
of a chafing nature, alternating with maledictions. 

General Butler waited upon Captain Farragut, and heard a nar- 
rative of recent events. The general announced his determination 
to land forthwith, and Captain Farragut notified the mayor of this 
resolve ; adding that he should hold no farther correspondence with 



280 



LANDING IN NEW ORLEANS. 



the authorities of New Orleans, but gladly yielded the situation to 
the commander of the army. Returning to the Mississippi, GeneraJ. 
Butler directed the immediate disembarkation of the troops,* and 
the operation began about four o'clock in the afternoon. A com- 
pany of the Thirty-first Massachusetts landed on the extensive plat- 
form raised above the levee for the convenient loading of cotton, 
and, forming a line, slowly pressed back the crowd, at the point of 
the bayonet, until space enough was obtained for the regiments to 
form. When the Thirty-first had all landed, they marched down 
the cotton platform to the levee, and along the levee to De Lord 
street, where they halted. The Fourth Wisconsin was then dis- 
embarked, after which the procession was formed in the. order fol- 
lowing : 

First, as pioneer and guide, marched Lieutenant Henry Weigel, 
of Baltimore, aid to the general, who was familiar with the streets 
of the city, and now rose from a sick bed to claim the Mfillment 
of General Butler's promise that he, and he only, should guide the 
troops to the Custom-House. 

Next, the drum-corps of the Thirty-first Massachusetts. Behind 
these, General Butler and his staff on foot, no horses having yet 
been landed, a file of the Thirty-first marching on each side of 
them. Then Captain Everett's battery of artillery, with whom 
marched Captain Kensel, chief of artillery to the expedition. The 
Thirty-first followed, under Colonel O. P. Gooding. Next, General 
Williams and his staff, preceded by the fine band of the Fourth 
Wisconsin, and followed by that regiment under Colonel Paine. 
The same orders were given as on the march into Baltimore : si- 
lence; no notice to be taken of mere words; if a shot were fired 
from a house, halt, arrest inmates, destroy house ; if fired upon from 
the crowd, arrest the man if possible, but not fire into the crowd 

* " Head-quarters Department of the Gulf, 
" New Orleans, May 1, 1862. 

" General Order No. 15. 

"I. In anticipation of the immediate disembarkation of the troops of ihis command amid the 
temptations and inducements of a large city, all plundering of public or private property, by any 
person or persons, is hereby forbidden, under the severest penalties. 

" II. No officer or soldier will absent himself from his station without arms or alone, under any 
pretext whatever. 

"III. The commanders of regiments and companies will be held responsible for the strict exe- 
cution of these orders, and that the offenders are brought to punishment * 

" By command of Major-General Butler. 

"Geo. C. Strong, A. A. General.' 1 '' 



LANDING m NEW OELEANS. 



281 



unless absolutely necessary for self-defense, and then not without 
orders. 

At five the procession moyed, to the music of the Star Spangled 
Banner. The crowd surged along the pavements on each side of 
the troops, struggling chiefly to get a sight of the general ; crying 
out : " Where is the d — d rascal ?" " There he goes, G — d d — n 
him !" "I see the d — d old villain!" To which were added such 
outcries, as " Shiloh," " Bull Run," " Hurrah for Beauregard ;" 
,; ' Go home, you d — d Yankees." From some windows, a mild hiss 
was bestowed upon the troops, who marched steadily on, looking 
neither to the right hand nor to the left. The general, not having 
a musical ear, was observed to be chiefly anxious upon the point 
of keeping step to the music — a feat that had never become easy 
to him, often as he had attempted it in the streets of Lowell. And 
so they marched ; along the levee to Poydras street ; Poydras 
street to St. Charles street ; past the famous hotel, closed and de- 
serted now, though alive with five hundred inmates three days be- 
fore; along St. Charles street to Canal street and the Custom- 
House — that vast, unfinished, roofless structure, upon which the 
United States had expended so many millions, one Beauregard 
being engineer. 

The troops surrounded the edifice ; Captain Kensel posted his 
artillery, so as to command the adjacent streets ; and the general 
ordered the Thirty-first to enter and occupy the building. But 
Captain Bell had locked the door and put the key into his pocket. 
The door was forced, therefore, and by six o'clock, the Thirty-first 
was lodged in the second story, making preparations for the even- 
ing meal. Strong guards were posted at all needful points. The 
general and his staff then returned to the levee, and went on board 
the Mississippi for the night. The Twelfth Connecticut, Colonel 
Deming, bivouacked upon the levee near the ship, happy to lie down 
once more under the stars, after being so long huddled in a trans- 
port ship. The evening was warm and serene, and the city was 
again as still as a country hamlet. General Phelps came on shore 
at twilight, and walked about the city unattended and unmolested. 
Kay, he reported that the people whom he had spoken to, answered 
his inquiries with politeness, despite his uniform. "You didn't 
mention your name ; did you, General ?" asked an officer. " No," 
replied he, laughing ; " no one asked it." 



282 



LANDING IN NEW ORLEANS. 



That evening, General Butler having put the fi wishing touchos to 
his proclamation, sent two officers of his staff to the office of the 
True Delta, to get it printed as a hand-bill. He forbore to de- 
mand its insertion in the paper, unwilling to bring upon any one 
establishment the odium that its insertion could not but excite. In 
all ways, he was for trying the suaviter in modo, before resort- 
ng to the fortiter in re. The officers reached the office at ten, 
after the proprietor and editors had gone home. The foreman in 
charge replied, that in the absence of the proprietor, the document 
could not be printed. The officers returned to the ship, reported, 
and received farther orders. At eight the next morning, the same 
officers were again at the office of the True Delta, where they 
found the chief proprietor, and repeated their request. 

No; the True Delta office could not think of printing General 
Butler's proclamation. 

The officers quietly intimated that, in that case, they would be 
under the painful necessity of seizing the office, and using the ma- 
terials therein for the purpose of printing it. The proprietor ob- 
jected. He said that the selection of his establishment for the 
printing of such a manuscript, was invidious and unjust ; it looked 
as if the design was to make him and his colleagues obnoxious and 
loathsome to their fellow-citizens. " I can not resist," said he, " the 
seizure of the office, but, under no circumstances, shall it be used 
for the purpose designated, with my approval or consent." 

The officers bowed and retired. After two hours' absence, they 
returned with a file of soldiers, armed and equipped, who drew up 
before the building. Half a dozen of them entered the printing- 
office, where they laid aside their weapons of war, and took up the 
peaceful implements of their trade. The proclamation was soon in 
type, and a few copies printed ; enough for the general's immediate 
purpose. The proprietor himself testified, in the paper of the next 
day, that the troops effected their purpose and retired, " without 
offering any offense in language or behavior, or manifesting the 
least desire to interfere with the regular business of the office, or to 
injure or derange its property." It would have been better if he could 
have refrained from other comment. But he did not. He added : 
" As this first step of the commander of the federal troops in pos- 
session of this city is indicative of a determination, on his part, to 
subject us to a supervision utterly subversive of the character of 



LANDING IN NEW ORLEANS. 



fearless patriotism which the True Delta has ever maintained, we 
will promise this much, and we will perform it, namely, to suspend 
our publication, even if our last crust be sacrificed by the act, rather 
than molt one feather of that independence which, in presence of 
every discouragement and danger, we have ever made our honest 
boast. We have no favors to ask ; we have never asked or desired 
any from any party ; and we are prepared to stand or fall with the 
fortunes of our adopted Louisiana." 

General Butler ordered the suspension of the True Delta until 
farther orders. The proprietors, however, yielded to the inevita- 
ble, promised compliance with the general's requisitions, and ob- 
tained, on the next day, permission to resume the publication of the 
paper. It was not, however, till the 6th of May, that the procla- 
mation appeared in its columns. The other newspapers took the 
hint, and exhibited, in their comments upon passing events, a blend- 
ing of the politic with the audacious that was ingenious and amus- 
ing, but not always ingenious enough, as General Butler occasionally 
reminded them. Editing a secession newspaper in New Orleans 
during the next eight months, was an affair which could be de- 
scribed as "ticklish;" rather more so, than conducting a journal in 
the Orleans interest, under the nose of Louis Bonaparte. 

The second day of the occupation of the city was crowded with 
events of the highest interest. 

The landing of the troops was resumed with the dawn. Colonel 
Deming encamped his fine regiment in Lafayette Square in front 
of the City Hall. Other regiments were-posted in convenient locali 
ties. Troops were landed in Algiers on the opposite bank of the 
river, and the railroad terminating there was seized, with its cars 
and buildings. General Phelps went up the river several miles in 
the Saxon to reconnoiter, and select a site for a camp above the 
city. Captain Everett was busy extracting the spikes from the 
cannon lying about the Custom-House, and preparing to mount some 
of them in it and upon it. He cast an inquiring and interested eye 
upon the eight hundred bells — church bells, school bells, plantation 
bells, hand bells, cow bells — which had been sent to New Orleans 
upon General Beauregard's requisition ; some of which now call the 
children of New England to school ; others, factory girls to their 
labor ; others, rural congregations to church ; for they were all sold 
at auction, sent to the North, and distributed over the country 



284 



LANDING IN NEW OELEANS. 



The quartermaster to the expedition had a world of trouble with 
the draymen of the city, whom he needed for transporting the tents 
and baggage. Not one of them dared, not many of them wished, 
to serve him. He was obliged to compel their assistance at the 
point of the pistol. Everything seized for the use of the troops, on 
this day and on all days, was. either paid for when taken, or a re- 
ceipt given therefor which was equivalent to gold. The behavior 
of the troops was faultless. No resident of New Orleans was 
harmed or insulted. None complained of harm or insult. A stran- 
ger would have supposed, from the quiet demeanor of the troops 
and the arrogant air of the people, that the soldiers were prisoners 
in an enemy's town, not conquerors in a captured one. For the 
inost part, the troops held no intercourse whatever with the inhabi- 
tants. It was, indeed, perilous in the extreme, for a resident of the 
ciiy to speak to an old friend, if that friend wore the uniform of 
the United States. Major Bell mentions that he met several old 
acquaintances about the city, but they either gave him the cut di- 
rect, or else bestowed a hurried, furtive salutation, and passed rap- 
idly on. Another officer reports that on accosting an acquaintance, 
the gentleman said, in an anxious undertone, " Don't speak to me, 
or 1 shall have my head blown off." 

A gentleman connected with the expedition, but not in uniform,* 
tells me that he strolled into a market that morning, and bought a 
cup of coffee, for which he gave a gold dollar, and received in change 
nineteen dirty car-tickets, part of the established currency of the city. 

Quarters were required for the commanding general and his 
staff. What could they be but the St. Charles hotel, vacated five 
days before by General Lovell ? Major Strong, Colonel French, 
and Major Bell, accompanied by Mr. Glenn, formerly a resident of 
New Orleans, were dispatched, early in the morning, to make the 
preliminary arrangements. They found the building closed. Going 
round to the ladies' entrance they gained admission to the famous 
rotunda — bar-room and slavemart, scene of countless "difficulties" 
and chivalric assassinations. There they met a son of one of the 
proprietors, to whom they stated their wishes. He replied, that 
both the proprietors were absent ; and as to his giving up the hotel 
to General Butler/ his head would be shot off before he could reach 
the next corner if he should do it. He declared that waiters would 

* Air. Samuel F. Glenn, afterward clerk of the provost-court. 



21 



LANDING IN NEW ORLEANS. 



285 



not dare to wait upon them, nor cooks to cook for them, nor porters 
to carry for them. Moreover, there were no provisions to be had 
in the market ; he did not see what could be got for them beyond 
army rations. These objections were offered by the young gentle- 
man with the utmost politeness of manner. Major Strong observed, 
with equal suavity, that he need give himself no concern with 
regard to giving up the hotel. In the name of General Butler, they 
would venture to take it. And as to the lack of provisions, they 
were used to army rations, had found them sufficient, and could 
make them do for an indefinite period. With regard to waiters and 
cooks, the army of occupation were chiefly men of the Yankee per- 
suasion, who were accustomed to wait on themselves, and could do a 
little of everything, from cooking upward. The young gentleman 
had nothing farther to offer, and so the St. Charles became the 
head-quarters of the army. The general arrived in the course of 
the morning, and established his office in one of the ladies' parlors. 
Mrs. Butler still remained on board the Mississippi. 

The three officers and Mr. Glenn next proceeded to the City 
Hall, in search of the mayor. They found that public functionary, 
after some delay. They informed him, with all possible courtesy, 
that General Butler, commanding the department of the Gulf, had 
established his head-quarters at the St. Charles hotel, where he 
would be happy to confer with the mayor and council of New 
Orleans, at two o'clock on that day. The reply of the mayor was 
to the effect, that his place of business was at the City Hall, where 
any gentleman who had business with him could see him during 
office hours. Colonel French politely intimated that that was * not 
an answer likely to satisfy the commanding general, and expressed 
a hope that the mayor, on reflection, would not complicate a state 
of affairs, already embarrassing enough, by raising questions of eti- 
quette. General Butler was well disposed toward New Orleans 
and its authorities ; he merely desired to come to a clear under- 
standing with them as to the future government of the city. The 
officers retired. The mayor, upon reflection, concluded to wait upon 
the general. At two o'clock, accompanied by Mr. Scale and a 
considerable party of friends, highly respectable gentlemen of the 
city, he sat face to face with General Butler in the ladies' parlor of 
the St. Charles. 

The interview was destined to be interrupted and abortive. The 



\ 



<?86 



LANDING IN NEW OELEANS. 



seizure of the St. Charles hotel appeared to have rekindled the pas- 
sions of the populace, who surrounded the building in a dense mass, 
filling all the open space adjacent. A cannon was posted at each 
of the corners of the buildiug ; a regiment surrounded it ; and the 
brave General Williams was in command. But it seemed as if the 
quiet demeanor of the troops, since the landing of the evening be- 
fore, had been misinterpreted by the mob, who grew fiercer, louder 
and bolder, as the day wore on. The mayor and his party had not 
been long in the presence of General Butler, when an aide-de-camp 
rushed in and said : 

" General Williams orders me to say, that he fears he will not be 
able to control the mob." 

General Butler, in his serenest manner, replied : 

" Give my compliments to General Williams, and tell him, if he 
finds he can not control the mob, to open upon them with artil- 
lery." 

The mayor and his friends sprang to their feet in consternation. 

"Don't do that, general!" exclaimed the mayor. 

"Why not, gentlemen?" said the general. "The mob must be 
controlled. We can't have a disturbance in the street." 

" Shall I go out and speak to the people ?" asked the mayor. 

" Anything you please, gentlemen," replied General Butler. " I 
only insist that order be maintained in the public streets." 

The mayor and other gentlemen addressed the crowd; and, as 
their remarks were enforced by the rumor of General Butler's or- 
der, there was a temporary lull in the storm. The crowd remained, 
however ; vast, fierce and sullen. 

The interview having been resumed, the mayor was proceeding 
to descant, in the high-flown rhetoric of the South, upon General 
Butler's former advocacy of the rights of the southern states. The 
South had looked upon him as its special friend and champion, etc. 

" Stop, sir," said the general. " Let me set you right on that 
point at once. I was always a friend of southern rights, but ai> 
enemy of southern wrongs." 

The conversation was going on in an amicable strain, when 
another aid entered the apartment, Lieutenant Kinsman, of General 
Butler's staff, who requested a word with the general. 

This officer had been sent to the fleet that morning in search of 
telegraphic operators. On board the Mississippi (the man-of-war, 



LANDING IN NEW ORLEANS. 



287 



not the transport steamer), he was accosted by Judge Summers, 
who had sought refuge on board the ship, as we have before related. 
The unhappy judge, who was anxious to get to the city, requested 
Lieutenant Kinsman to take him on shore, and give him adequate 
protection against the mob, who, he said, would tear him hmb froni 
limb, if they should catch him alone. The lieutenant, who had left 
the city perfectly quiet, was disposed to make light of the danger ; 
but said he could go on shore with him if he chose, and he would 
endeavor to get him safe to the St. Charles. On reaching the levee, 
Lieutenant Kinsman impressed a hack into his service, and the two 
passengers were started for the hotel. Unluckily, the ex-recorder 
is a man of gigantic stature — six feet five, and of corresponding 
magnitude ; a man of such pronounced peculiarity of appearance, 
that even if he had never sat on the bench and thus become familiar 
to the eyes of scoundrels, he must have been known by sight to all 
who frequented the streets of the city. He was instantly recog- 
nized. A crowd gathered round the carriage, hooting, yelling, curs- 
ing ; new hundreds rushing in from every street ; for all the men in 
the city were idle and abroad. Several times the carriage came to 
a stand; but Lieutenant Kinsman, pistol in hand, ordered the driver 
to go on, and kept him to his work, until they reached the troops 
guarding the hotel, where both succeeded in alighting and entering 
the building unharmed. 

Judge Summers was thoroughly unnerved, as most men would 
have been in the same circumstances. A mob is of all wild beasts 
the most cowardly, the most easily managed by a man that is un- 
scarable by phantoms. The mob that attacked the Tribune office, 
last J uly, was scattered by the report of one pistol. I saw it done. 
Never have I seen the square in front of the building so bare of 
people as it was in ten seconds after that solitary pistol was fired. 
But a mob is, at the same time, the most terrific thing to look at, 
especially if its vulgar and savage eye is fixed upon you, that can 
be imagined. Mr. Summers felt unsafe, even in the hotel. " Give 
me some protection," said he ; " they'll tear me all to pieces if 
they get in here ;" and it looked, at the time, as if the mob would 
get in. 

Hence it was, that Lieutenant Kinsman interrupted the general, 
and asked a word with him. 

General Butler came out, and heard the lieutenant's report. 



288 



LANDING IN NEW ORLEANS. 



The ex-recorder said there was no place in the St. Charles where 
he could be safe. 

" Well, then," said the general, " there's the Custom-House over 
yonder ; that will hold you. You can go there, if you choose." 

" But how can I get there ? The mob will tear me to pieces." 

The general reflected a moment. Then said, assuming all the 
44 major-general commanding :" 

" We may as well settle this question now as at any other time. 
Lieutenant Kinsman, take this man over to the Custom-House. 
Take what force you require. If any one molests or threatens 
you, arrest him. If a rescue is attempted, fire." 

Having said this, he returned to the conference with the mayor, 
and Lieutenant Kinsman proceeded to obey the order. He con- 
ducted Mr. Summers to a side door, which he opened, and disclosed 
to the view of his charge a compact mass of infuriated men, held at 
bay by a company of fifty soldiers. 

"Don't attempt it," said the judge, recoiling from the sight. 

" I must," returned the lieutenant. " The general's orders were 
positive, I have no choice but to obey." 

The company of soldiers were soon drawn up hi two lines, four 
feet apart, two men closing the front and two the rear of the 
column. In the open space were Lieutenant Kinsman and Mr. 
Summers. 

" Forward, march !" The column started. The crowd recogni- 
zing the giant judge, yelled and boiled around the slowly pushing 
column. The active men of the mob were not those within reach 
of the soldiers. The nearest men prudently held their peace and 
watched their chance. Consequently, no arrests were made until 
the column had gone half way to the Custom-House. At that 
point stood an omnibus with one man in it, who was urging on the 
mob, by voice and gesture, with the violence of frenzy. 

" Halt ! Bring out that man !" 

Two soldiers sprang into the omnibus, collared the lunatic, drew 
him out, and placed him between the lines, where he continued to 
yell and gesticulate in the most frantic manner. 

" Stop your noise !" thundered the lieutenant. 

"I won't," said the man; "my tongue is my own." 

"Sergeant , lower your bayonet. If a sound comes out 

of that man's mouth, run him through !" 



LANDING IN NEW ORLEANS. 



U89 



The man was silent. 

u Forward — march !" The column pushed on again, but very 
slowly. After going some distance, the lieutenant perceived that 
one man, who had been particularly vociferous, was within clutch- 
ing distance. 

" Halt — bring in that man," pointing him out. 

The man was seized and placed in the column. He continued to 
shout, but a lowered bayonet brought him to his senses also. The 
column pushed on again, and lodged the judge and the two prison- 
ers safely in the impregnable Custom-House, the citadel of Xew 
Orleans. The company marched back, in the same order, through 
a crowd " as silent as a funeral," to use the lieutenant's own lan- 
guage. 

This scene was witnessed from the windows of the St. Charles 
by General Butler and his staff, and by the mayor and his friends, 
the conference being suspended by common consent. The general 
informs me. that the firmness of Lieutenant Kinsman on this occa- 
sion, aided by the soldierly steadiness of the troops, and the perfect 
coolness of their officers, contributed most essentially to the subju- 
gation of the mob of Xew Orleans. It was never so rampant again. 
The company was Captain Paige's of the Thirty-first Massachu- 
setts. 

The reader perceives how it fared with the conference. The 
afternoon wore away amid these interruptions, and it was finally 
agreed to postpone farther conversation till the evening, when all 
matters in dispute should be thoroughly discussed. By that time 
too, copies of the Proclamation would be ready from the True Delta 
office. So the mayor and his friends departed. 

In the dusk of the evening, a carriage having been with difficulty 
procured, General Butler, with a single orderly on the box, drove 
to the levee, a distance of three-quarters of a mile, and went on 
c-oard the transport Mississippi. Mrs. Butler and her maid had 
massed an anxious day there, ignorant of what was passing in the 
city. " Get ready to go on shore," said the general. The trunks 
were locked and strapped, and transferred to the carriage. Mrs. 
Butler and her attendant took their places, the general followed 
them, and the party was driven to the hotel without molestation or 
outcry. 

There was a curious tea-party that evening in the vast dining- 



290 



LANDING IN NEW ORLEANS. 



room of the St. Charles, where hundreds of people had been wont 
to consume luxurious fare. At one end of one of the tables sat the 
little company, lost in the magnitude of the room — the general, Mrs. 
Butler, and two or three members of the staff. The fare was neither 
sumptuous nor abundant, and the solitary waiter was not at his ease, 
for he was doing an act that was death by the mob law of New 
Orleans. The general entertained the company by reading choice 
extracts from the anonymous letters which he had received in the 
course of the day. " We'll get the better of you yet, old cock-eye,' 1 
remarked one of his nameless correspondents. Another requested 
him to wait a month or two, and see what Yellow Jack would do 
for him. Another warned him to look out for poison in his food. 
Both the General and Mrs. Butler received many epistles of this 
nature during the first few weeks, as well as some of a highly eulogis- 
tic tenor. Occasionally the general would reply to one of the abu- 
sive letters in the manner following : 

"Madame : I have received the letter in which you remark upon 
my conduct in New Orleans, which I regret does not meet your 
approbation. It may interest you to know that others view it in 
a very different light, and I, therefore, beg to inclose for your 
perusal a letter received this day, in which my administration is 
commented upon in a strain different from that in which you have 
done me the honor to review it. I am, madame," etc. 

As the frugal repast in the St. Charles was drawing to a close, a 
band on the balcony in front of the building, in full view of the 
crowd, struck up the Star Spangled Banner, filling the void im- 
mensity of the dining-room with a deafening noise. The band con- 
tinued to play during the evening, the crowd standing silent and 
sullen. 

Our business, however, lies this evening in the ladies' parlor. It 
is a spacious, lofty and elegant apartment. On one side, in a large 
semi-circle, sat the representatives of New Orleans, the mayor, the 
common council, other magnates, and Mr. Pierre Soule, spokesman 
and orator of the occasion. Mr. Soule had long been the special 
favorite of the Creole population ; popular, also, with all his fellow- 
citizens ; a kind of pet, or ladies' delight among them ; renowned, 
too, at the bar. New Yorkers may call him, if they please, the 
James T. Brady of New Orleans. In appearance, he is not unlike 
Napoleon Bonaparte — about the stature, complexion, and general 



LANDING IN NEW ORLEANS. 



291 



style of Napoleon ; only with an eye of marvelous brilliancy, and 
hair worn very long, black as night. A melodious, fluent, grace- 
ful, courteous man, formed to take captive the hearts of listening 
men and women. Of an independent turn of mind, too ; not too 
tractable in the courts; not one of those who made haste to sever 
the ties that had bound them to their country. He appears to 
have accepted secession as a fact accomplished, rather than helped 
to make it such. In conventions and elsewhere, General Butler 
had often met him before to-day, and their intercourse had always 
been amicable. 

On the opposite side of the room, also in a semi-circle, sat 
General Butler and his stafF, in full uniform, brushed for the oc- 
casion. Readers are familiar with those annihilating caricatures, 
which are called photographs of General Butler. In truth, the 
general has an imposing presence. Not tall, but of well-developed 
form, and fine, massive head ; not graceful in movement, but of 
firm, solid aspect ; self-possessed ; not silver-tongued, not fluent, like 
Mr. Soule ; on the contrary, he is slow of speech, often hesitates 
and labors, can not at once bring down the sledge-hammer squarely 
on the anvil ; but down it comes at last with a ring that is remem- 
bered. It is only in the heat and tempest of contention, that he 
acquires the perfect use of his parts of speech. A lady who may, 
for anything I know, have been peeping into the room this even- 
ing from some coigne of vantage, compares the two combatants on 
this occasion to Richard and Saladin, as described by Scott in the 
Talisman; where Saladin, all alertness and grace, cuts the silk 
with gleaming, swiftest cimeter, and burly Richard, with pon- 
derous broad-sword, which only he could wield, severs the bar of 
iron. 

General Butler opened the conversation by saying that the object 
for which he had requested the attendance of the mayor and coun- 
cil, was to explain to them the principles upon which he intended 
to govern the department to which he had been assigned, and to 
learn from them how far they were disposed to co-operate with him. 
He added that he had prepared a proclamation to the people of 
New Orleans, which expressed his intentions ; and which he would 
now read. After reading it he would be happy to listen to any re- 
marks from gentlemen representing the people of the city. He 
then read the proclamation as follows : 
13 



292 



LANDING IX NEW ORLEANS. 



PROCLAMATION OF GENERAL BUTLER. 

" Head-qttaetees, Depaetment of the Gulf, 
" New Oeleans, May 1, 1862. 

" The city of New Orleans and its environs, with all its interior and ex- 
terior defenses, having surrendered to the combined naval and land f orces 

the United States, and being now in the occupation of the forces of the 
United States, who have come to restore order, maintain public tranquillity, 
and enforce peace and quiet, under the laws and constitution of the United 
States, the major-general commanding hereby proclaims the object and 
purposes of the government of the United States in thus taking possession 
of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana, and the rules and regulations 
by which the laws of the United States will be for the present, and during 
the state of war, enforced and maintained, for the plain guidance of all 
good citizens of the United States, as well as others who may have hereto- 
fore been in rebellion against their authority. 

" Thrice before has the city of New Orleans been rescued from the hands 
of a foreign government, and still more calamitous domestic insurrection.* 
by the money and arms of the United States. It has of late been under 
the military control of the rebel forces, and at each time, in the judgment 
of the commanders of the military forces holding it. it has been found ne- 
cessary to preserve order and maintain quiet by an administration of mar- 
tial law. Even during the interim from its evacuation by the rebel soldiers 
and its actual possession by the soldiers of the United States, the civil au- 
thorities have found it necessary to call for the intervention of an armed 
Dody known as the European Legion, to preserve the public tranquillity. 
The commanding general, therefore, will cause the city to be guarded, until 
the restoration of the United States authority and his farther orders, by 
martial law. 

"All persons in arms against the United States are required to surrender 
themselves, with their arms, equipments, and munitions of war. The body 
known as the European Legion, not being understood to be in arms against 
the United States, but organized to protect the lives and property of the 
citizens, are invited to still co-operate with the forces of the United States 
to that end, and, so acting, will not be included in the terms of this order, 
but will report to these head-quarters. 

" All ensigns, flags, devices, tending to uphold any authority whatever, 
«afcre the flags of the United States and those of foreign consulates, must 
not be exhibited, but suppressed. The American ensign, the emblem of 

* 1st, by purchase in 1803. 2d, by General Wilkinson in 1807, when the city -was supposed t« 
be threatened by Aaron Burr. 3d, by General Jackson in 1814 



LANDING IN NEW OELEANS. 



293 



the United States, must be treated with the utmost deference and respect 
by all persons, under pain of severe punishment. 

"All persons well disposed towards the government of the United States, 
who shall renew the oath of allegiance, will receive a safeguard of protec- 
tion to their persons and property from the army of the United Staces. aad 
the violation of such safeguard will be punishable with death. All persons 
still holding allegiance to the Confederate States, will be deemed rebels 
against the government of the United States, and regarded and treated as 
enemies thereof. All foreigners, not naturalized and claiming allegiance to 
their respective governments, and not having made oath of allegiance to 
the government of the Confederate States, will be protected in their per- 
sons and property, as heretofore, under the laws of the United States. All 
persons who may have heretofore given adherence to the supposed govern- 
ment of the Confederate States, or been in their service, who shall lay 
down or deliver up their arms, return to peaceful occupations, and preserve 
quiet and order, holding no farther correspondence nor giving aid and com- 
fort to enemies of the United States, will not be disturbed in their per- 
sons or property, except so far under the orders of the commanding general 
as the exigencies of the public service may render necessary. 

" Keepers of all public property, whether state, national, or confederate, 
such as collections of art, libraries and museums, as well as all public build- 
ings, all munitions of war and armed vessels, will at once make full- returns 
thereof to these head-quarters. All manufacturers of arms and munitions 
of war will report to these head-quarters their kind and places of business. 
All the rights of property, of whatever kind, will be held inviolate, subject 
only to the laws of the United States. All the inhabitants are enjoined to 
pursue their usual avocations. All shops and places of amusement are to 
be kept open in the accustomed manner, and services are to be held in the 
churches and religious houses, as in times of profound peace. 

" Keepers of all public houses and drinking saloons are to report their 
names and numbers to the office of the provost-marshal, and they will then 
receive a license, and be held responsible for all disorders and disturbances 
arising in their respective places. 

" Sufficient force will be kept in the city to preserve order and maintain 
the laws. The killing of American soldiers by any disorderly person or 
mob. is simply assassination and murder, and not war, and will be so re- 
garded and punished. The owner of any house in which such murder shall 
be committed will be_held responsible therefor, and the house be liable to 
be destroyed by the military authority. All disorders, disturbances of the 
peace.lmd crimes of an aggravated nature, interfering with the forces or 
laws of the United States, will be referred to a military court for trial avl 
punishment. Other misdemeanors will be subject to the municipal author 
itv, if it desires to act. 



294 



LAXDING EST NEW OELEANS. 



" Civil causes between party and party will be referred to the ordinary 
tribunals. 

" The levy and collection of taxes, save those imposed by the laws of the 
United States, are suppressed, except those for keeping in repair and light- 
ing the streets, and for sanitary purposes. These are to be collected in the 
usual manner. 

" The circulation of Confederate bonds, evidences of debt (except notes 
in the similitude of bank-notes) issued by the Confederate States, or scrip, 
or any trade in the same, is forbidden. It has been represented to the 
commanding general by the civil authorities that these Confederate notes, 
in the form of bank-notes, in a great measure, are the only substitutes for 
money which the people have been allowed to have, and that great distress 
would ensue among the poorer classes if the circulation of such notes 
should be suppressed. Such circulation, therefore, will be permitted so 
long as any one will be inconsiderate enough to receive them, until farther 
orders. 

" No publication of newspapers, pamphlets, or hand-bills, giving accounts 
of the movements of the soldiers of the United States within this depart - 
ment, reflecting in any way upon the United States, intended in any way 
to influence the public mind against the United States, will be permitted, 
and all articles on war news, editorial comments, or correspondence making 
comments upon the movements of the armies of the United States, must be 
submitted to the examination of an officer, who will be detailed for that 
purpose from these head- quarters. The transmission of all communications 
by telegraph will be under the charge of an officer detailed from these head- 
quarters. 

"The armies of the United States came here not to destroy, but to re- 
store order out of chaos, to uphold the government and the laws in the 
place of the ' passage' of men. To this end, therefore, the efforts of all 
well disposed are invited, to have every species of disorder quelled. 

If any soldier of the United States should so far forget his duty or his flag 
as to commit outrage upon any person or property, the commanding gen- 
eral requests his name to be instantly reported to the provost guard, so that 
he may be punished and his wrongful act redressed. The municipal au- 
thority, so far as the police of the city and environs are concerned, is to ex- 
tend as before indicated, until suspended. 

; ' All assemblages of persons in the streets, either by day or night, tend 
to disaster, and are forbidden. The various companies composing the Fire 
Department of New Orleans will be permitted to retain their organizations, 
and are to report to the provost-marshal, so that they may be known, and 
not interfered with in their duties. 

" And, finally, it may be sufficient to add, without farther enumeration, 
that all the requirements of martial law will be imposed so long as, in the 



LANDING IN NEW ORLEANS. 



295 



judgment of the United States authorities, it may be necessary ; and while it 
is desired by these authorities to exercise this government mildly, and after 
the usages of the past, it must not be supposed that it will not be rigor- 
ously and firmly administered as the occasion calls for it." 

"By command of Ma job- General Btttleb. 

"Geo. B. Steong, A. A. Chief of Staff 

" The sum and substance of the whole," said General Butler, " is 
this : I wish to leave the municipal authority in the full exercise 
of its accustomed functions. I do not desire to interfere with the 
collection of taxes, the government of the police, the lighting and 
cleaning of the streets, the sanitary laws, or the administration of 
justice. I desire only to govern the military forces of the depart- 
ment, and to take cognizance only of offenses committed by or 
against them. Representing here the United States, it is my wish 
to confine myself solely to the business of sustaining the govern- 
ment of the United States against its enemies." 

Mr. Soule replied. He said, that his first concern was for the 
tranquillity of the city, which, he felt sure, could not be maintained 
so long as the federal troops remained within its limits. He 
therefore urged and implored General Butler to remove the troops 
to the outskirts of the town, where the hourly sight of them would 
not irritate a sensitive and high spirited people. " I know the feel- 
ings of the people so well," said he, " that I am sure your soldiers 
can have no peace while they remain in our midst." The Proclama- 
tion,- he added, would give great offense. The people would never 
submit. They were not conquered, and could not be expected to be- 
have as a conquered people. " Withdraw your troops, general, and 
leave the city government to manage its own affairs. If the troops 
remain, there will certainly be trouble." 

This absurd line of remark — absurd as a reply to the general's 
proposals — fired the commander of the department of the gulf. He 
spoke, however, in a measured though decisive manner. 

"I did not expect," said he, "to hear from Mr. Soule a threat 
on this occasion. I have been long accustomed to hear threats from 
southern gentlemen in political conventions ; but let me assure gen- 
tlemen present, that the time for tactics of that nature has passed 
never to return. New Orleans is a conquered city. If not, why 
are we here ? How did we get here ? Have you opened your 
arms and bid us Tel come ? Are we here by your consent ? 



296 



LANDING IX NEW ORLEANS. 



Would you or would you not, expel us if you could? !N~ew Orleans 
has been conquered by the forces of the United States, and by 
the laws of all nations, lies subject to the will of the conquerors. 
Nevertheless, I have proposed to leave the municipal government 
to the free exercise of all its powers, and I am answered by a 
threat." 

Mr. Soule disclaimed the intention to threaten the troops. He 
had desired merely to state what, in his opinion, would be the con- 
sequences of their remaining. 

" Gladly," continued General Butler, " will I take every man of 
the army out of Xew Orleans the very day, the very hour it is 
demonstrated to me that the city government can protect me from 
insult or danger, if I choose to ride alone from one end of the city 
to the other, or accompanied by one gentleman of my staff. Your 
inability to govern the insulting, irreligious, unwashed mob in your 
midst has been clearly proved by the insults of your rowdies toward 
my officers and men this very afternoon, and by the fact that Gen- 
eral Lovell was obliged to proclaim martial law while his army oc- 
cupied your city, to protect the law abiding citizens from the row- 
dies. I do not proclaim martial law against the respectable citizens 
of this place, but against the same class that obliged General Wil- 
kinson, General Jackson, and General Lovell to declare it. I have 
means of knowing more about your city than you think, and I 
am aware that at this hour there is an organization here established 
for the purpose of assassinating my men by detail ; but I warn you 
that if a shot is fired from any house, that house will never again 
cover a mortal's head ; and if I can discover the perpetrator of the 
deed, the place that now knows him shall knew him no more for 
ever. I have the power to suppress this unruly element in your 
midst, and I mean so to use it, that in a very short period, I shall 
be able to ride through the entire city, free from insult and danger, 
or else this metropolis of the South shall be a desert, from the Plains 
of Chalmette to the outskirts of Carrollton." 

Mr. Soule, in reply, delivered an oration, the beauty and grace 
of which were admired by all who heard it. I regret that we have 
no report of his speech. It was, in part, a defense and eulogy of 
K"eW Orleans, and, in part, a secession speech of the usual tenor, 
illumined by the rhetoric of an accomplished speaker. He said that 
New Orleans contained a smaller proportion of the mob element 



LANDING IN NEW ORLEANS. 



than any other city of equal size, and that the proclamation of mar- 
tial law by General Lovell was aimed, not at the mob, but at the 
Union men and " traitors" in their midst. 

The conversation then turned to a topic of immense moment to 
the people of the city, the supply of provisions. The general said 
he had determined to issue permits to dealers and others, which 
should protect them in bringing in provisions from a certain dis- 
tance beyond his lines. The awful situation of the poor of the city 
should have his immediate attention ; in the mean time, the Con- 
federate currency in their hands should be allowed to circulate, 
since many of them had nothing else of the nature of money. 

After much farther discussion, the general being immovable, the 
mayor announced, that the functions of the city government would 
be at once suspended, and the general could do with the city as 
seemed to him good. 

A member of the council promptly interposed, saying, that a 
matter of so much importance should not be disposed of until it had 
been considered and acted upon by the common council. The 
mayor assented. General Butler offered no objection. It was 
finally agreed that the council should confer upon the subject the 
next morning, and make known the result of their deliberations to 
the general in the course of the day. The gentlemen then with- 
drew : the crowd in the streets gradually dispersed, and the city 
enjoyed a tranquil night. 

The next morning, the Proclamation was published ; i. e., "hand- 
bills, containing it, were freely given to all who would take one. 
Two important appointments were also announced : Major Joseph 
W. Bell, to be provost-judge, and Colonel Jonas H. French, to be 
provost-marshal. Colonel French notified the people, by hand-bill, 
that he " assumed the position of provost-marshal, for the purpose 
of carrying out such of the provisions of the Proclamation of the 
general commanding within this department, as were not left to 
municipal action. * * * Particularly does he call attention to 
the prohibition against assemblages of persons in the streets ; the 
sale of liquor to soldiers ; the necessity for a license on the part of 
keepers of public houses, coffee-houses, and drinking saloons , to 
the posting of placards about the streets, giving information con- 
cerning the action or movements of rebel troops, and the publish- 
ing in the newspapers of notices or resolutions laudatory of the 



298 



LAXDING LN" XEW ORLEANS. 



enemies of the United States. " The soldiers of this command are 
subject, upon the part of some low-minded persons, to insult. This 
must stop. Repetition will lead to instant arrest and punishment. 
In the performance of his duties the undersigned will, in no de- 
gree, trench upon the regularly established police of the city, but 
will confine himself simply to the performance of such acts as were 
to be assumed by the military authorities of the United States; 
and, in such action, he hopes to meet with the ready co-operation 
of all who have the welfare of the city at heart." 

At noon, the foreign consuls waited upon General Butler, ac- 
companied by General Juge, commanding the European Brigade. 
The interview was in the highest degree amicable and courteous. 
General Butler explained to the consuls the line of conduct he had 
marked out for himself, and related the leading points of his pro- 
posal to the mayor and council, whose reply he was then awaiting. 
He also assured the consuls, that nothing should be wanting on his 
part, to facilitate the discharge of their public duties. His most 
earnest desire, he said, was to confine his attention to his military 
duty, and leave all public functionaries, domestic and foreign, to the 
unrestrained discharge of their vocations. He warmly thanked 
General Juge for his eminent services during the last week, ex- 
pressed regret that he had disbanded his men, hoped he would re- 
organize them, and aid him in maintaining order. The gentlemen 
retired, apparently well pleased with what they had heard. They 
all shook hands with the general at parting. 

A delegation from the common council next appeared, who in- 
formed the general that his proposal of the evening before was 
accepted. The city government should go on as usual ; but they 
requested that the troops should be withdrawn from the vicinity of 
the City Hall, that the authorities might not seem to be acting un- 
der military dictation. This request was granted : the troops were 
withdrawn. 

The general went farther. He sent a considerable body of troops 
under General Phelps to Carrollton, where a permanent camp was 
formed. A brigade under General Williams soon went up the 
river with Captain Farragut, to take possession of and hold Baton 
Rouge. Other troops were posted in the various forts upon the 
lakes abandoned by the enemy. Others were at Algiers. The 
camps in the squares of the city were broken up. When all the 



LANDING IN NEW ORLEANS. 



299 



troops were posted, there remained in the city, during the first few 
weeks, two hundred and fifty men : and these men lodged in the 
Custom-House, and served merely as a provost-guard. Mr. Soule, 
therefore, had his desire, or nearly so, for the general was fully 
resolved to omit no fair means of conciliating the people, and win- 
ning them back to their allegiance. 

Thus, by the end of the third day, the city was tranquil, and there 
seemed a prospect of the two sets of authorities going on peacefully 
together, each keeping to its own department ; General Butler gov- 
erning the army, and extending the area of conquest ; the mayor 
and council ruling the city, aided, if necessary, by General Juge and 
his brigade. This was the theory upon which General Butler began 
his memorable administration. This was the offer which he sin- 
cerely made to the people and government of the city. We shall 
discover, in time, whose fault it was that the theory proved so sig- 
nally untenable. 

The comments of the press of New Orleans upon the new order 
of things, were far more favorable to General Butler than could 
have been expected. The True Delta frankly admitted the truth of 
that part of the Proclamation which gave to the European Brigade 
the credit of having preserved the city. " For seven years past," 
said the True Delta, of May 6th, " the world knows that this city, 
in all its departments — -judicial, legislative and executive — has been 
at the absolute disposal of the most godless, brutal, ignorant and 
ruthless ruffianism the world has ever heard of since the days of 
the great Roman conspirator. By means of a secret organization 
emanating from that fecund source of every political infamy, ]STew 
England, and named Know Nothingism or ' Sammyism' — from the 
boasted exclusive devotion of the fraternity to the United States — 
our city, from being 'the abode of decency, of liberality, generosity 
and justice, has become a perfect hell; the temples of justice are 
sanctuaries for crime; the ministers of the laws, the nominees of 
olood -stained, vulgar, ribald caballers; licensed murderers shed 
innocent blood on the most public thoroughfares with impunity ; 
witnesses of the most atrocious crimes are either spirited away, 
bought off, or intimidated from testifying ; perjured associates are 
retained to prove alibis, and ready bail is always procurable for the 
immediate use of those whom it is not immediately prudent to en- 
large otherwise. The electoral system is a farce and a fraud ; the 
13* 



300 



FEEDIXG AXD EilPLOTIXG THE POOK. 



knife, the slung-shot, the brass knuckles determining, while the 
sham is being enacted, who shall occupy and administer the offices 
of the municipality and the commonwealth. Can our condition 
then surprise any man ? Is it, either, a fair ground for reproach to 
the well-disposed, kind-hearted and intelligent fixed population of 
"New Orleans, that institutions and offices designed for the safety of 
their persons, the security of their property, and maintenance of 
their fair repute and unsullied honor, should by a band of conspira- 
tors, in possession by force and fraud of the electoral machinery, 
be diverted from their legitimate uses and made engines of the most 
insupportable oppression ? TTe accept the reproach in the Proc- 
lamation, as every Louisianian alive to the honor and fair fame of 
his state and chief city must accept it, with bowed heads and brows 
abashed." 

The Bee of May 8th said : " The mayor and municipal authorities 
have been allowed to retain their power and privileges in every- 
thing unconnected with military affairs. The federal soldiers do 
not seem to interfere with the private property of the citizens, and 
have done nothing that we are aware of to provoke difficulty. The 
usual nightly reports of arrests for vagrancy, assaults, wounding 
and killing have unquestionably been diminished. The city is as 
tranquil and peaceable as in the most quiet times." 



CHAPTER XVH. 

FEEDING AXD E3TPLOTTNG THE POOE. 

New Orleans was in danger of starving. It contained a popu 
iation of, perhaps, one hundred and fifty thousand, for whom there 
was in the city about thirty days' supply of provisions, held at prices 
beyond the means of all but the rich. A barrel of flour c "uld not 
be bought for sixty dollars ; the markets were empty, the provision 
stores closed. The trade with Mobile, which had formerly whitened 
the lakes and the sound with sails, was cut off. The Texas drovers 
had ceased to bring in cattle, and no steamboats from the Red 
River country were running. The lake coasts were desolate and 



FiSEI'ISTG AXD EMPLOYING THE TOOK. 



301 



hall' deserted, because tlie trade with Xew Orleans had ceased, and 
because the locusts of secession had devoured their substance. 

•New Orleans was thus a starring city in the midst of an impov- 
erished country. The river planters, who had been wont to send 
marketing to the city, now feared to trust their sloops, their pro- 
duce and their slaves, within the lines of an army which they had 
been taught to believe was bent on plunder only. A large pro- 
portion of the men of New Orleans were away with the Confeder- 
ate armies, at Shiloh, in Virginia, and elsewhere, having left wives 
and children, mistresses and their offspring, to the public charge. 
The city taxes were a million dollars in arrears ; and the city gov- 
ernment, it was soon discovered, was expending its energies and 
its ingenuity upon a business more congenial than that of providing 
for the poor, namely, that of frustrating and exasperating the com- 
mander of the Union army. In a word, fifty thousand human be- 
ings in New Orleans saw before them a prospect, not of want, not 
' of a long struggle with adversity, but of starvation ; and that imme- 
diate — to-morrow or the next day ; and General Butler, wielding 
the power and resources of the United States, alone could save 
them. 

To this task he addressed himself; it necessarily had the prece- 
dence of all other work during the first few days. If we confine 
ourselves to this topic for a short time, so as to show in one view 
all that General Butler did for the poor of New Orleans, the reader 
will please bear in mind, that the commanding general was by no 
means able to confine his attention to it. He had everything to do 
at once. The business of the city was dead ; he strove to revive 
it. Confidence in the honest intentions of the Union authorities 
did not exist ; he endeavored to call it into being. The currency 
was deranged ; it was his duty to rectify it. The secessionists were 
audaciously diligent ; he had to circumvent and repress them. The 
yellow fever season was at hand ; he was resolved to ward it off". 
The city government was obstructive and hostile ; it was his busi- 
ness to frustrate their endeavors. The negro problem loomed up ; 
vast and portentous ; he had to act upon it without delay. The banks 
were in disorder ; their affairs demanded his attention. The consu- 
lates were so many centers of hostile operations ; he had to pene- 
trate their mysteries. His army was considerable, his field of op- 
eration immense ; he could not neglect the chief business of his 



302 



FEEDING AND EMPLOYING THE POOR. 



mission. All these affairs claimed his immediate attention, a] id had 
it. But though a thousand events may occur simultaneously, it is 
not convenient to relate them simultaneously. We shall have 
sometimes to disregard the order of time, and pursue one subject 
or class of subjects to the end. 

General Butler's first measures for the supply of the city were 
taken upon the suggestion of the city magnates. The following 
orders were promulgated on the third day of the occupation of the 
city: 

I. 

" The commanding general of this department has been informed that 
there is now at Mobile a stock of flour purchased by the city of New Or- 
leans for the subsistence of its citizens. The suffering condition of the 
poor of this city, for the want of this flour, appeals to the humanity of those 
having authority on either side. For the purpose of the safe transmission 
of this flour to this city, the commanding general orders and directs that a 
safe conduct be afforded to a steamboat, to be laden with the same to this 
place. This safe conduct shall extend to the entire protection of the boat 
in coming, reasonable delay to discharge, and return to Mobile. 

" The boat will take no passengers, save the owners and keepers of the 
flour, and will be subject to the strict inspection of the harbor-master de- 
tailed from these head-quarters, to whom its master will report its arrival. 
The faith of the city is pledged for the faithful performance of the require- 
ments of this order on the part of the agent of the city authorities, who 
will be allowed to pass each way with the boat, giving no intelligence or 
aid to the Confederates. 1 ' 

n. 

"The president, directors, &c, of the Opelousas railroad are authorized 
and required to run their cars over their road for the purpose of bringing 
to the city of New Orleans all materials for provisions, marketing, and 
supplies of food which may be offered in order to supply the wants of the 
city. No passengers other than those having the care of such supplies, a9 
owners and keepers, are to be permitted to come into the city, and none 
other are to leave the city. All other supplies are prohibited transport 
over the road either way, except c otto n and sugar, which may be safely 
brought over the road, and will be purchased at their fair market value by 
the United States in specie. The transmission of live stock is especially 
enjoined. An agent of the city government will be allowed to pass over 
the road either way, stopping at all points, on the faith of a pledge of snch 
government that he transmits no intelligence and affords no aid to the Con- 



FEEDING AND EMPLOYING THE POOR. 



303 



federates. The officer commanding the post having the terminus of such 
road within his pickets, will cause a thorough inspection of the cars and 
boats for the purpose of farthering this order, and will offer no farther 
hindrance so long as this order is in good faith complied with." 

III. 

" The commanding general of the Department of the Gulf has been in- 
formed that live stock, flour, and provisions, purchased for subsistence of 
the inhabitants of the city of New Orleans, are now at the junction of the 
Eed and Mississippi rivers. The suffering condition of the poor of the city, 
for want of these supplies, appeals to the humanity of those having author- 
ity on either side. For the purpose, therefore, of the safe transmission of 
these supplies to the city, the commanding general orders and directs that 
a safe conduct be afforded for two steamers, to be laden with provisions, 
cattle, and supplies of food, either alive or slaughtered, each day, if so many 
choose to come. This safe conduct shall- extend to their entire protection 
by the forces of the United States during their coming, reasonable delay 
for discharge, not exceeding six days, unless in case of accident to their 
machinery, and in returning to or near the junction of the Red and Missis- 
sippi rivers. 

u And safe conduct is farther granted to boats, laden as before stated, 
with provisions for New Orleans from any point above the junction of such 
rivers, if at any time during which these supplies are needed the forces of 
the United States should be at or above such junction. 

"These boats will take no passengers save the owners or keepers of the 
freight aforesaid, and will be subject to strict inspection by the harbor- 
master detailed from these head-quarters, to whom they will report their 
arrival. 

The faith of the city is pledged for the faithful execution of the require- 
ments of this order on the part of the agent of the city authorities, who 
will be allowed to pass with the boats either way, he giving no intelligence 
or aid to the Confederates." 

For the immediate relief of the poor, General Butler gave from 
his own resources a thousand dollars, half in money, half in pro- 
visions. His brother, Colonel A. J. Butler, who found himself, by 
the action of the senate, without employment in ISTew Orleans, 
and having both capital and credit at command, embarked in the 
business of bringing cattle from Texas, to the great advantage of 
the city and his own considerable profit. The quartermaster's 
chest being empty, General Butler placed all the money of bis own, 
which he could raise, at his disposal. Provisions soon began to 



304 



FEEDING AXD EilPXOYIXG THE POOR. 



arrive, but not in the requisite quantities. At the end of a month, 
flour had fallen to twenty-four dollars a barrel ; but nearly nine- 
teen hundred families were daily fed at the public expense, and 
thousands more barely contrived to subsist. 

It immediately appeared that every one of the passes and per- 
mits issued by the general, in accordance with the orders just 
given, was abased, to the aid and comfort of secession. It was 
discovered that provisions were secretly sent out of the city 
to feed General Lovell's troops. It was ascertained that Charles 
Heidsieck, one of the champagne Heidsiecks, had come from Mo- 
bile in the provision steamboat, disguised as a bar-keeper, and con- 
veyed letters to and from that city ; an oflense which consigned 
him speedily to Fort Jackson. Nor did the city government stir 
in the business of providing for the poor ; not a dollar was voted, 
not a relieving act was passed. The city was reeking, too, with 
the accumulated filth of many weeks, the removal of which would 
have afforded employment to many hungry men ; but it was suf- 
fered to remain, inviting the yellow fever. 

General Butler, on the 9th of May, reminded the mayor and 
council of the compact between himself and the city authorities 
made five days before. " I desire," said he, " to call your atten- 
tion to the sanitary condition of your streets. Having assumed, 
by the choice of your fellow-citizens and the permission of the 
United States authorities, the care of the city of New Orleans in 
this behalf, that trust must be faithfully administered. Resolu- 
tions and inaction will not do. Active, energetic measures, fully 
and promptly executed, are imperatively demanded by the exi- 
gencies of the occasion. The present suspension of labor fur- 
nishes ample supplies of hungry men, who can be profitably em- 
ployed to this end. A tithe of the labor and effort spent upon the 
streets and public squares, which was uselessly and inanely wasted 
upon idle fortifications, like that about the United States Mint, will 
place the city in a condition to insure the health of its inhabitants. It 
will not do to shift the responsibility from yourselves to the street 
commissioners, from thence to the contractor, and thence to the 
sub-contractors, and through all the grades of civic idleness and 
neglect of duty. Three days since I called the attention of Mr. 
Mayor to this subject, and nothing has been done." 

The mayor boldly replied that three hundred extra men had beer 



FEEDING AND EMPLOYING THE POOR. 



305 



set- to work upon the streets. No such force could be discovered 
)y the optics of Union officers. Steps may have been taken toward 
-.he employment of men, and even " extra men," in cleaning the city ; 
but it is certain that, up to the ninth of May, no street-cleaners 
were actually at work. The weather was extremely hot, and the 
/jeed of purification was manifest and pressing. 

On the same day, General Butler issued one of his startling gen- 
oral orders, the terms and tone of which were doubtless influenced 
by the mayor's audacious reply, as well as by the abuse of the 
passes which admitted food to a starving city. 

"New Oeleans, May 9, 1862. 
" The deplorable state of destitution and hunger of the mechanics and 
working classes of this city has been brought to the knowledge of the com- 
manding general. 

" He has yielded to every suggestion made by the city government, and 
ordered every method of furnishing food to the people of New Orleans that 
government desired. No relief by those officials has yet been afforded. 
This hunger does not pinch the wealthy and influential, the leaders of the 
rebellion, who have gotten up this war, and are now endeavoring to prose- 
cute it, without regard to the starving poor, the workingman, his wife and 
child. Unmindful of their suffering fellow-citizens at home, they have 
caused or suffered provisions to be carried out of the city for Confederate 
service since the occupation by the United States forces. 

"Lafayette Square, their home of affluence, was made the dep6t of stores 
and munitions of war for the rebel armies, and not of provisions for their 
poor neighbors. Striking hands with the vile, the gambler, the idler, and 
the ruffian, they have destroyed the sugar and cotton which might have 
been exchanged for food for the industrious and good, and regrated the 
price of that which is left, by discrediting the very currency they had fur- 
nished, while they eloped with the specie ; as well that stolen from the 
United States, as from the banks^ the property of the good people of New 
Orleans, thus leaving them to ruin and starvation. 

"Fugitives from justice many of them, and others, their associates, stay- 
ing because too puerile and insignificant to be objects of punishment by the 
clement government of the United States. 

" They have betrayed their country : 

" They have been false to every trust : 

"They have shown themselves incapable of defending the state they hat 
seized upon, although they have forced every poor man's child into their 
service as soldiers for that purpose, while they made their sons and ne- 
phews officers : 



306 



FEEDING AND EMPLOYING THE POOR. 



" They can not protect those whom they have ruined, but ha^e left then. 
to the mercies and assassinations of a chronic mob : 

" They will not feed those whom they are starving : 

" Mostly without property themselves, they have plundered, stolen, and 
destroyed the means of those who had property, leaving children penniless 
and old age hopeless. 

" Men of Louisiana, workinomen, property-holders, merchants, and 
citizens of the United States, of whatever nation you may have had 
birth, how long will you uphold these flagrant wrongs, and, by inaction, 
suffer yourselves to be made the serfs of these leaders ? 

" The United States have sent land and naval forces here to fight and 
subdue rebellious armies in array against her authority. We find, substan- 
tially, only fugitive masses, runaway property-burners, a whisky-drinking 
mob, and starving citizens with their wives and children. It is our duty to 
call back the first, to punish the second, root out the third, feed and pro- 
tect the last. 

" Eeady only for war, we had not prepared ourselves to feed the hungry 
and relieve the distressed with provisions. But to the extent possible, 
within the power of the commauding general, it shall be done. 

" He has captured a quantity of beef and sugar intended for the rebels 
in the field. A thousand barrels of these stores will be distributed among 
the deserving poor of this city, from whom the rebels had plundered it ; 
even although some of the food will go to supply the craving wants of 
the wives and children of those now herding at ' Camp Moore' and else- 
where, in arms against the United States. 

" Captain John Clark, acting chief commissary of subsistence, will be 
charged with the execution of this order, and will give public notice of the 
place and manner of distribution, which will be arranged, as far as possi- 
ble, so that the unworthy and dissolute will not share its benefits." 

Another measure of relief was adopted when the arrival of stores 
from New York had delivered the army itself from the clanger of 
scarcity. The chief commissary was authorized to " sell to families 
for consumption, in small quantities, until farther orders, flour and 
/ salt meats, viz. : pork, beef, ham, and bacon, from the stores of the 

army, at seven and a half cents per pound for flour and ten cents 
for meats. City bank-notes, gold, silver, or treasury notes to be 
taken in payment." 

The city government still neglecting the streets, General Butlei 
conceived the idea of combining the relief of the poor with the puri 
fication of the city. There was nothing upon which he was more 
resolved than the disappointment of rebel hopes with regard to the 



FEEDING AND EMPLOYING THE POOR. 



307 



yellow fever. He understood the yellow fever, knew the secret of 
its visitations, felt himself equal to a successful contest with it. 
June fourth (the mayor of the city being then in a state of suppres- 
sion at Fort Jackson, for acts yet to be related), the general 
sketched his plan in the following letter to General Shepley and the 
common council: 

New Oeleans, June 4, 1862. 
" To the Military Commandant and City Council of New Orleans: 

" General Shepley and Gentlemen : — Painful necessity compels some 
action in relation to the unemployed and starving poor of New Orleans. 
Men willing to labor can not get work by which to support themselves and 
families, and are suffering for food. 

" Because of the sins of their betrayers, a worse than the primal curse 
seems to have fallen upon them. ' In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat 
bread until thou return unto the ground.' 

u The condition of the streets of the city calls for the promptest action 
for a greater cleanliness and more perfect sanitary preparations. 

'•' To relieve, as far as I may be able to do, both difficulties, I propose to 
the city government, as follows : 

" 1. The city shall employ upon the streets, squares, and unoccupied 
lands in the city, a force of men, with proper implements, and under com- 
petent direction, to the number of two thousand, for at least thirty work- 
ing days, in putting those places in such condition as, with blessing of 
Providence, shall insure the health as well of the citizens as of the troops. 

" The necessities of military operations will detain in the city a larger 
number of those who commonly leave it during the summer, especially wo- 
men and children, than are usually resident here during the hot months. 
Their health must be cared for by you ; I will care for my troops. The 
miasma which sickens the one will harm the other. The epidemic so earn- 
estly prayed for by the wicked will hardly sweep away the strong man, 
although he may be armed, and leave the weaker woman and child un- 
touched. 

" 2. That each man of this force be paid by the city from its revenues 
fifty cents per day, and a larger sum for skilled labor, for each day's labor 
of ten hours, toward the support of their families, and that in the selection 
of laborers, men with families dependent upon them be preferred. 

3. That the United States shall issue to each laborer so employed, for 
each day's work, a full ration for a soldier, containing over fifty ounces of 
wholesome food, which, with economy, will support a man and a woman. 

"This issue will be fully equal in value, at the present prices of food, to 
I lie sum paid by the city. 



308 



FEEDING AND EMPLOYING THE POOK. 



•'4. That proper muster-rolls be prepared of these laborers, and details 
so arranged, that only those that labor, with their families, shall be fed 
from this source. 

" 5. No paroled soldier or person who has served in the Confederate 
forces shall be employed, unless he takes the oath of allegiance to the Uni- 
ted States. 

"I shall be glad to arrange the details of this proposal through the aid 
of Colonel Shafer, of the quartermaster department, and Colonel Turner, 
of the subsistence department, as soon as it has been acted on by you." 

General Shepley communicated this letter to the council, who 
readily adopted the plan, and appointed a gentleman to superintend 
their share in it. On the part of the United States, General Shep- 
ley named Colonel T. B. Thorpe, the well-known author of the "Bee 
Hunter," who had received the appointment of city surveyor. The 
entire management of the two thousand laborers fell to Colonel 
Thorpe, as his colleague refused to take the oath of allegiance to 
the Umted States, which General Butler made a sine qua non. No 
man could have done the work better. He waged incessant and 
most successful war upon nuisances. He tore away shanties, filled 
up hollows, purged the canals, cleaned the streets, repaired the levee, 
and kept the city in such perfect cleanliness -as extorted praise from 
the bitterest foes of his country and his cbie** In gangs of twenty- 
five, each, under an overseer, the street-sweepers pervaded the city. 

"It was a reflecting sight," says an eye-witness, "to behold 
these men on the highways and by-ways, with their shovels and 
brooms ; and it was still more gratifying to notice and to feel the 
happy effects of their work. The street cleaning commenced, the 
colonel then undertook the distribution of the food to the families 
of the laborers, and this was a task of no ordinary magnitude. A 
thousand half-starved women, made impatient by days of starvation, 
brought in contact and left to struggle at the entrance of some ill- 
arranged establishment, for their food and. rights, was a formidable 
subject of contemplation ; so the colonel organized a distributing 
department, and so well managed his plans that the food is being 
given out with all the quietness of a popular grocery. To secure 
the object of the charity, he had tickets printed that made the de- 
livery of the food to the women only ; in this way it was carried 
into the family, consumed by the helpless, and not sold by the un 
principled for rum. The moment Colonel Thorpe's name appeared 



FEEDING AND EMPLOYING THE POOR. 



m the papers, he was flooded with letters calling his attention to 
nuisances, the people acting voluntarily as street inspectors. By a 
judicious distribution of labor, in a few days the change became a 
subject of comment, some of the most furious secessionists admit- 
ting 4 that the federals could clean the streets, if they couldn't do 
anything else.' "* 

Colonel Thorpe's labors were permanently beneficial to the city 
in many ways. The freaks of the Mississippi river constantly 
create new land within the city limits. This land, which is 
called batture (shoal), requires the labor of man before it is com- 
pletely rescued from the domains of the river. It is computed that 
Colonel Thorpe's skillfully directed exertions upon the batture ad- 
ded to the city a quantity of land worth a million of dollars. 

And this leads us to the most remarkable of all the circum- 
stances attending General Butler's relief of the poor of New Or- 
leans. He not only made it profitable to the city, but he managed 
it so as not to add one dollar to the expenditures of his own gov- 
ernment. At a time when thirty-five thousand persons were sup- 
ported by the public funds, he could still boast, and with literal 
truth, that it cost the United States nothing. " You are the cheap- 
est general we have employed," said Mr. Chase, when acknowl- 
edging the return of twenty-five thousand dollars in gold, which had 
been sent to General Butler's commissary. 

The following general order explains the secret : 

u New Orleans, Augusts, 1862. 

" It appears that the need of relief to the destitute poor of the city re- 
quires mov* extended measures and greater outlay than have yet been made. 

"It becomes a question, injustice, upon whom should this burden fall. 

" Clearly upon those who have brought this great calamity upon their 
fellow-citizens. 

" It should not be borne by taxation of the whole municipality, because 
the middling and working men have never been heard at the ballot-box, 
unawed by threats and unmenaced by 'Thugs' and paid assassins of con- 
spirators against peace and good order. Besides, more than the vote that 
was claimed for secession have taken the oath of allegiance to the United 
States. 

" The United States government does its share when it protects, defends, 
and preserves the people in the enjoyment of law, order, and calm quiet. 
" Those who have brought upon the city this stagnation of business, tbig 

* Correspondent of New York Times, July 21, 1S62. 




310 



EEEDIXG A.ND EMPLOYING THE POOR. 



desolation of the hearth-stone, this starvation of the poor and helpless, 
should, as far as they may be able, relieve these distresses. 

" There are two classes whom it would seem peculiarly fit should at first 
contribute to this end. First, those individuals and corporations who have 
aided the rebellion with their means : and second, those who have endeav- 
ored to destroy the commercial prosperity of the city, upon which the wel- 
fare of its inhabitants depend. 

" It is brought to the knowledge of the commanding general that a sub- 
scription of twelve hundred and fifty thousand dollars was made by the 
corporate bodies, business firms, and persons whose names are set forth in 
schedule ' A' annexed to this order, and that sum placed in the hands of an 
illegal body known as the 1 Committee of Public Safety,' for the treason- 
able purpose of defending the city against the government of the United 
States, under whose humane rule the city of New Orleans had enjoyed 
such unexampled prosperity, that her warehouses were filled with trade of 
all nations who came to share her freedom, to take part in the benefits of 
her commercial superiority, and thus she was made the representative mart 
of the world. 

" The stupidity and wastefulness with which this immense sum was spent 
was only equaled by the folly which led to its being raised at all. The 
subscribers to this fund, by this very act, betray their treasonable designs 
and their ability to pay at least a much smaller tax for the relief of their 
destitute and starving neighbors. 

"Schedule 'B 1 is a list of cotton brokers, who, claiming to control that 
great interest in New Orleans, to which she is so much indebted for her 
wealth, published in the newspapers, in October, 1861,. a manifesto deliber- 
ately advising the planters not to bring their produce to the city, a meas- 
ure which brought ruin at the same time upon the producer and the city. 

u This act sufficiently testifies the malignity of these traitors, as well to 
the government as their neighbors, and it is to be regretted that their abil- 
ity to relieve their fellow-citizens is not equal to their facilities for injuring 
them. 

" In taxing both these classes to relieve the suffering poor of New Or- 
leans, yea, even though the needy be the starving wives and children of 
those in arms at Eichmond and elsewhere against the United States, it will 
be impossible to make a mistake save in having the assessment too easy 
and the burden too light. 

""It is therefore Oedeeed — 

u 1st. That the sums in schedules annexed, marked 'A' and 'B,' set 
against the names of the several persons, business firms and corporations 
herein described, be and hereby are assessed upon each respectively. 

"2d. That said sums be paid to Lieutenant David 0. G-. Field, financial 
clerk, at his office in the Custom-House, on or before Monday, the 11th in- 



/ 

/ 



FEEDIXG AXD EMPLOYING THE POOR. 



311 



stant, or that the property of the delinquent be forthwith seized and sold at 
public auction, to pay the amount, with all necessary charges and expenses, 
or the party imprisoned till paid. 

"3d. The money raised by this assessment to # be a fund for the purpose 
of providing employment and food for the deserving poor people of New 
< )rleans." 

The promised schedules followed. The first contained ninety-five 
names, arranged thus : 

SCHEDULE A. 

List of subscribers to the Million and a Quarter Loan, placed in the hands 
of the Committee of Public Safety, for the defense of New Orleans against 
the United States, and expended by them some $38,000. 

Sums subscribed Sums assessed 

to aid treason to relieve the 
against the poor by the 

United States. United States. 

Abat, G-eneres & Co $210,000 $52,500 

Jonathan Montgomery 40,000 10,000 

Thos. Sloo, President Sun Insurance Co.. . . 50,000 12,500 

C. C. Gaines 2,000 500 

C. C. Gaines & Co 3,000 750 

The sum yielded by this schedule was $312,716.25. The second 
schedule, which contained ninety-four names, began thus : 

SCHEDULE B. 

List of Cotton Brokers of New Orleans who published in the Crescent, in. 
October last, a card advising planters not to send produce to New Or- 
leans, in order to induce foreign intervention in behalf of the rebellion. 

Sums assessed to relieve 
the starving poor by 
the United States. 

Hewitt, Norton & Co * $500 

West & Villerie. 250 

S. E. Belknap 100 

Brander, Chambliss & Co. 500 

Lewis & Oglesby 100 

The amount of this assessment was $29,200. General Order, 
STo. 55, placed at the disposal of General Butler, for the support of 
the poor of the city, the sum of $341,916.25. 

To complete our knowledge of this unique transaction, the fol 
lowing brief documents are requisite : 



1 



312 



FEEDING AND EMPLOYING THE POOR. 



" New Orleans, August 1th, 1862. 

" Special Ordee, No. 247. 

" J. 0. Ricks, D. K. Carroll and A. D. Kelley, having been absent from 
the city at the time of drawing up the original card, ' advising planters not 
to seDd produce to New Orleans,' but on their return, having deemed it 
advisable to issue a card, placing themselves in the same position, are here- 
by taxed in the sum of $500.00 each, in accordance with General Order 
No. 55." 

" New Orleans, August 6th, 1802. 

" Special Order, No. 244. 

" The city surveyor and street commissioner are authorized to employ 
not less than one thousand men (including those now employed), to work 
on the streets, wharves and canals. In the selection of these laborers, 
married men will have the preference. These men to be paid out of the 
employment and relief fund raised by General Order No. 55. 

" While this force was paid by taxation of the property of the city, the 
commanding general felt authorized to employ it only in the most econom- 
ical manner, but it now being employed at the expense of their rebellious 
neighbors, the commanding general proposes that they shall be paid the 
same sum that was paid them by the same party for work on the for- 
tifications, to wit : one dollar and a half for each day's labor. 

" The rations, heretofore a gift to these laborers by the United States, 
will now be discontinued. 

" The order to take effect from and after the first Monday in August, 
1862." 

The effect produced by a measure so boldly just, upon the minds 
of the ruling class of New Orleans, can scarcely be imagined. I 4 
was the more stunning from the fact, that after three months' ex- 
perience of General Butler's government, his orders were known to 
be the irreversible fiat of irresistible power. Every man who saw 
his name on either catalogue, was perfectly aware that the sum an- 
nexed thereto must be paid on or before the designated day. Pro- 
test he might, but pay he must. Money first ; argument afterward. 
The loyal Delta, conducted then by two officers of General Butler's 
army, Captain John Clark, formerly of the Boston Courier ', and 
Lieutenant-Colonel E. M. Brown, of the Eighth Vermont, discoursed 
humorously upon the agitation in the fashionable quarter on the 
day the order was promulgated : 

" For the first time these many months, the habitues de la 
gra,nde Rue (Carondelet), woke from their lethargy. Sleek old 



FEEDING AND EMPLOYING TlfE POOE. 



313 



gentlemen, whose stomachs are distended with turtle, and who 
sport ivory-headed canes, and wear on their noses two-eyed glasses 
rimmed with gold, came out from their umbrageous seclusions in 
Prytania street, Coliseum Place, and other rural portions of the 
Garden District, to condole with each other upon the once more 
animated flags. At an early hour knots of these aldermanic looking 
gentry, with white vests and stiffened shirt collars, had collected in 
the vicinity of Colonel Baxter's corner, for the purpose of discuss- 
ing the merits of Order No. 55, which was destined to disturb the 
equilibrium of many a cash balance, and to cause unwilling fingers 
to dive into the depths of plethoric pockets, long undisturbed by 
the prying digits of their sumptuous owners. It was interesting 
to contemplate the sorrowful visages of this funereal crowd. Some 
of them had been taxed hundreds, and some to the tune of thou- 
sands ; but all alike bore the solemn aspect of unresisting muttons 
led silently to the slaughter. They had made their money easily, to be 
sure, but parting with it was like pulling teeth. Some of these men 
are worth a million or two ; a few perhaps as much as ten millions 
in real estate, stocks, bonds, and expectations ; and others again 
are known as poor men, tolerably well to do, worth from three to 
five hundred thousand apiece. For these latter to be taxed as high 
as a hundred dollars out of the little savings which they had laid 
up by means of two and a half per cent, advance on cotton crops, 
and two and a half per cent, commissions, and yet other per centa- 
ges for brokerage, and stealage, seemed rather hard, at least to 
them." 

The Delta, however, assured the gentlemen, and with perfect 
truth, that lamentations would not do. " The poor must be em- 
ployed and fed, and you must disgorge. It will never do to have 
it said, that while you lie back on cushioned divans, tasting turtle, 
and sipping the wine cup, dressed in fine linen, and rolling in lordly 
carriages — that gaunt hunger stalked in the once busy streets, and 
poverty flouted its rags for the want of the privilege to work." 

There was but one court of appeal in New Orleans, open to a 
distressed secessionist — the consulate of the country of which he 
could claim to be a citizen. The consuls lent a sympathizing ear to 
all complaints, and willingly forwarded them to their ministers at 
"Washington ; who, in turn, laid them before the secretary of state, 
The protest of some of the " neutrals" in New Orleans gave Gen 



FEEDEXd AXD EMPLOYING THE POOK. 



eral Butler the opportunity to vindicate the justice of Order No. 55, 
and he performed the task with a master's hand. The following let- 
ter will be found to contain important and interesting histoiy, some 
curious geography, and much unanswerable argument : 

" Head-qttaetees, Depaetmext oe the Gulf, 
"New Oeleaxs, October, 1862. 
" Hon. E. M. Stastox, Secretary of War : 

u Sie: — I have the honor to report the facts and circumstances of my 
General Order No. 55, in answer to the complaints of the Prussian and 
French legations, as to the enforcement of that order upon certain inhabi- 
tants of New Orleans, claimed to be the subjects of these respective govern- 
ments. 

" Before discussing the speciality and personal relations of the several 
complainants, it will be necessary, in a general way, to give an account of the 
state of things which I found had existed, and was then existing at New 
Orleans upon its capture by the federal troops, to show the status of the 
several classes upon which General Order No. 55 takes effect. 

" In October, 1861, about the time Mason and Slidell left the city upon 
their mission to Europe, to obtain the intervention of foreign powers, great 
hopes were entertained by the rebels, that the European governments would 
be induced to interfere from want of a supply of cotton. This supply was 
being had, to a degree, through tie agency of the 6mall vessels shooting out 
by the numerous bayous, lagoons and creeks, with which the southern part 
of Louisiana is penetrated. They eluded the blockade, and conveyed very 
considerable amounts of cotton to Havana and other foreign ports, where 
arms and munitions .of war were largely imported through the same chan- 
nels in exchange. Indeed, as I have before had the honor to inform the de- 
partment of state, it was made a condition of the very passes given by 
Governor Moore, that a quantity of arms and powder should be returned in 
proportion to the cotton shipped. 

" The very high prices of the outward as well as the inward cargoes, 
made these ventures profitable, although but one in three got through with 
safety. 

" Nor does the fact, that so considerable quantities of cotton escaped the 
blockading force at all impugn the efficiency of the blockading squadron, 
when it is taken into consideration, that without using either of the princi- 
pal water communications with the city through the l Eigolets"' or the 
' Passes' at the Delta of the river, there' are at least fifty-three distinct outlets 
to the gulf from New Orleans by water communication, by light-draught 
vessels. Of course, not a pound of the cotton that went through these 
channels found its way north, unless it was purchased at a foreign port. 
To prevent even this supply of the European manufactures became an ob- 



FEEDING AXD EMPLOYING THE POOE. 



315 



ject of the greatest interest to the rebels; and prior to October, 1861, all 
the principal cotton factors of Xew Orleans, to the nnmber of about a 
hundred, united in an address, signed with their names, to the planters, ad- 
vising them not to send their cotton to Xew Orleans, for the avowed reason 
that if it was sent, the cotton would find its way to foreign ports, and fur- 
nish the interest ' of Europe and the United States with the product of 
which they are most in need, * * * * and thus contribute to the main- 
tenance of that quasi neutrality, which European nations have thought 
proper to avow.' 

" 'This address proving ineffectual to maintain the policy we had deter- 
mined upon, and which not only received the sanction of public opinion 
here, but which has been so promptly and cheerfully followed by the plant- 
ers and factors of the other states of the Confederacy, 1 the same cotton fac- 
tors made a petition to Governor Moore and General Twiggs, to * devise 
means to prevent any shipment of cotton to Xew Orleans whatever.' 

•"For answer to this petition, Governor Moore issued a proclamation for- 
bidding the bringing of cotton within the limits of the city, under the pen- 
alties therein prescribed. 

•• This action was concurred in by General Twiggs, then in command of 
the Confederate forces, and enforced by newspaper articles, published in the 
leading journals. 

This was one of the series of offensive measures which were undertaken 
by the mercantile community of Xew Orleans, of which a large portion 
were foreigners, and of which the complainant of Order iSTo. 55 formed a 
part in aid of the rebellion. 

41 The only cotton allowed to be shipped during the autumn and winter 
of 1861 and '62. was by permits of Governor Moore, granted upon the ex- 
press condition, that at least one-half in value should be returned in arms 
and munitions of war. In this traffic, almost the entire mercantile hruses 
of Xew Orleans were engaged. Joint-stock companies were formed, shares 
issued, vessels bought, cargoes shipped, arms returned, immense profits re- 
alized ; and the speculation and trading energy of the whole community 
was turned in this direction. It will be borne in mind that quite two-thirds 
of the trading community were foreign born, and now claim exemption 
from all duties as citizens, and exemption from liabilities for all their acts, 
because of being 'foreign neutrals." 

" TThen the expedition which I had the high honor to be intrusted to 
command, landed at Ship Island, and seemed to threaten JSew Orleans, the 
most energetic efforts were made by the state and Confederate authorities 
for the defense of the city. Xearly the entire foreign population of iLo city 
enrolled itself in companies, battalions, and brigades, representing different 
nationalities. 

They were armed, uniformed, and equipped, drilled and ^aoenvgrprt. 
14 



316 



FEEDING AND EMPLOYING THE POOR. 



and reported for service to the Confederate generals. Many of the foreign 
officers took the oath of allegiance to the Confederate States. The briga- 
dier-general in command of the European Brigade, Paul Juge. Fih. a natu- 
ralized citizen of the United States, but born in France, renounced his 
citizenship, and applied to the French government to be restored to his for- 
mer citizenship as a native of France, at the very time he held the command 
of this foreign legion. 

" The Prussian consul, now General Reichard, of the Confederate army, 
of whom Ave shall have more to say in the course of this report, raised a 
Dattalion of his countrymen, and went to Virginia, where he has been pro- 
moted for his gallantry in the rebel service, leaving his commercial partner. 
Mr. Kruttschnidt, now acting Prussian consul, who has married the sister of 
the rebel secretary of war, to embarrass as much as possible the United 
States officers here, by subscriptions to ' city defense funds.' and groundless 
complaints to the Prussian minister. 

I have thus endeavored to give a faithful and exact account of the state • 
of the foreign population of New Orleans, on the fifteenth day of February, 
1862. 

i- In October, 1861, the city had voted to erect a battery out of this 
• defense fund.' On the 19th of February, 1862, the city council, by vote, 
published and commented upon in the newspapers, placed in the hands of 
the Confederate General Lovell, fifty thousand dollars, to be expended by 
him in the defenses of the city. 

" It will, therefore, clearly appear that all the inhabitants of the city 
knew that the city council were raising and expending large sums for war 
purposes. 

" On the 20th of the same February, the city council raised an extraor- 
dinary ' Committee of Public Safety,' from the body of the inhabitants at 
large, consisting of sixty members, for the ' purpose of co-operating with 
the Confederate and state authorities in devising means for the defense of 
the city and its approaches.' 

" On the 27th of the same February, the city council adopted a series of 
resolutions : — 

" 1st. Recommending the issue of one million dollars of city bonds, 
for the purpose of purchasing arms and munitions of war. and to provide 
for the successful defense of the city and its approaches. 

2d. To appropriate twenty-five thousand dollars for the purpose of 
uniforming and equipping soldiers mustered into the service of the country. 

" 3d. Pledging the council to support the families of all soldiers who 
shall volunteer for the war. 

" On the 3d of March, 1862, the city council authorized the mayor to 
issue the bonds of the city for a million of dollars ; and provided that the 
chairman of the finance committee might ' pay over the said bonds to the 



_JJ 



FEEDING AXD EMPLOYING THE EOOR. 



Committee of Public Safety, appointed by the common council of the eitj 
of New Orleans, as per resolution, ITo. 8,930, approved 20th of February. 
1862, in such sums as they may require for the purchase of arms and mu 
nitions o^ war provisions, or to provide any means for the successful 
defense of the city and it? approaches ' 

"And, at the same time, authorized the cnairman of the finance com- 
mittee 4 to pay over $25,000 to troops mustered into the state service, who 
should go to the fight at Columbus or elsewhere, under General Beaure- 
gard. ' 

u It was to this fund, in the hands of this extraordinary committee, so 
published with its objects and purposes, that the complainants subscribed 
their money, and now claim exemption upon the ground of neutrality, 
and want of knowledge of the purposes of the fund. 

"It will be remembered that all the steps of the raising of the committee 
to dispose of this fund were published, and were matters of great public 
notoriety. The fact that the bonds were in the hands of such an extraor- 
dinary committee, should have put every prudent person on his guard. 

" All the leading secessionists of the city were subscribers to the same 
fund. 

•'Will it be pretended for a moment that these persons — bankers, mer- 
chants, brokers, who are making this complaint, did not know what this 
fund was, and its purposes, to which they were subscribing by thousands 
of dollars? 

u Did Mr. Kochereau for instance, who had taken an oath to support the 
Confederate States, a banker, and then a colonel commanding a body of 
troops in the service of the Confederates, never hear for what purpose the 
city was raising a million and a quarter in bonds ? 

" Take the Prussian consul, who complains for himself and the Mrs. Vo 
gel whom he represents, as an example. Did he know about this fund ? 
He, a trader, a J ew famed for a bargain, who had married the sister of the 
rebel secretary of war, the partner of General Reichard, late Prussian con- 
sul, then in command in the Confederate army, who subscribed for himself, 
his partner and Mrs. Yogel, the wife of his former partner, thirty thousand 
dollars — did he not know what he was doing, when he bought these bonds 
of this ' Committee of Public Safety V 

" On the. contrary, it was done to aid the rebellion to which he was 
bound by his sympathies, his social relations, his business connections and 
marriage ties. But it is said that this subscription is made to the fund for 
the sake of the investment. It will appear, however, by a careful examina- 
tion, that Mr. Kruttschnidt collected for his principal a note, secured by 
mortgage, in anticipation of its being due, in order to purchase twenty-five 
thousand dollars of this loan. Without, however, descending into particu- 
lars, is the profitableness of the investment to be permitted to be alleged as 



318 



FEEDING AND EMPLOYING THE POOR. 



a sufficient apology for aiding the rebellion by money and arms? If so», 
all their army contractors, principally Jews, should be held blameless, for 
they have made immense fortunes by the war. Indeed, I suppose another 
Jew — one Judas — thought his investment in the thirty pieces of silver was 
a profitable one, until the penalty of treachery reached him. 

" When I took possession of New Orleans, I found the city nearly on 
the verge of starvation, but thirty days' provision in it, and the poor utter- 
ly without the means of procuring what food there was to be had. 

" I endeavored to aid the city government in the work of feeding the 
poor ; but I soon found that the very distribution of food was a means 
faithlessly used to encourage the rebellion. I was obliged, therefore, to take 
the whole matter into my own hands. It became a subject of alarming 
importance and gravity. It became necessary to provide from some source 
the funds to procure the food. They could not be raised by city taxation, 
in the ordinary form. These taxes were in arrears to more than a million 
of dollars. Besides, it would be unjust to tax the loyal citizens and hon- 
estly neutral foreigner, to provide for a state of things brought about by 
the rebels and disloyal foreigners related to them by ties of blood, marriage, 
and social relation, who had conspired and labored together to overthrow 
the authority of the United States, and establish the very result which was 
to be met. 

"Farther, in order to have a contribution effective, it must be upon those 
who have wealth to answer it. 

"There seemed to me no such fit subjects for such taxation as the cotton 
brokers who had brought the distress upon the city, by thus paralyzing 
commerce, and the subscribers to this loan, who had money to invest for 
purposes of war, so advertised and known as above described. 

'■' "With these convictions, I issued General Order No. 55, which will ex- 
plain itself, and have raised nearly the amount of the tax therein set forth. 

" But for what purpose ? Not a dollar has gone in any way to the use of 
the United States. I am now employing one thousand poor laborers, as 
matter of charity, upon the streets and wharves of the city, from this fund. 
T am distributing food to preserve from starvation nine thousand seven 
hundred and seven families, containing 'thirty-two thousand four hun- 
dred and fifty souls' daily, and this done at an expense of seventy thousand 
dollars per month. I am sustaining, at an expense of two thousand dollars 
per month, five asylums for widows and orphans. I am aiding the Charity 
hospital to the extent of five thousand dollars per month. 

" Before their excellencies, the French and Prussian ministers, complain 
of my exactions upon foreigners at New Orleans, I desire they would look 
at the documents, and consider for a few moments the facts and figures set 
forth in the returns and in this report. They will find that out of ten thou- 
sand four hundred and ninety families who have been fed from the fund» 



FEEDING AND EMPLOYING THE POOP. 



319 



with the raising of which they find fault, less than one-tenth (one thousand 
and ten) are Americans ; nine thousand four hundred and eighty are for- 
eigners. Of the thirty-two thousand souls, but three thousand are natives. 
Besides, the charity at the asylums and hospitals distributed in about 
the same proportions as to foreign and native born ; so that of an expendi- 
ture of near eighty thousand dollars per month, to employ and feed the 
starving poor of New Orleans, seventy- two thousand goes to the foreigners, 
whose compatriots loudly complain, and offensively thrust forward their 
neutrality, whenever they are called upon to aid their suffering country- 
men. 

" I should need no extraordinary taxation to feed the poor of New Or- 
leans, if the bellies of the foreigners were as actively with the rebels, as are 
the heads of those who claim exemption, thus far, from this taxation, made 
and used for purposes above set forth, upon the ground of their neutrality ; 
among whom I find Eochereau & Co., the senior partner of which firm took 
an oath of allegiance to support the constitution of the Confederate States. 

" I find also the house of Eeichard & Co., the senior partner of which. 
General Eeichard, is in the rebel army. I find the junior partner, Mr. Krutt 
schnidt, the brother-in-law of Benjamin, the rebel secretary of war, using 
all the funds in his hands to purchase arms, and collecting the securities of 
his correspondent before they are due, to get funds to loan to the rebel au- 
thorities, and now acting Prussian consul here, doing quite as effective ser- 
vice to the rebels as bis partner in the field. I find Mme. Vogel, late part 
ner in the same house of Eeichard & Co., now absent, whose funds are man 
aged by that house. I find M. Paesher & Co., bankers, whose clerks and 
employes formed a part of the French legion, organized to fight the United 
States, and who contributed largely to arm and equip that corps. And a 
Mr. Lewis, whose antecedents I have not had time to investigate. 

" And these are fair specimens of the neutrality of the foreigners, for 
whom the government is called upon to interfere, to prevent their paying 
anything toward the Belief Fund for their starving countrymen. 

u If the representatives of the foreign governments will feed their own 
starving people, over whom the only protection they extend, so far as I see, 
is to tax them all, poor and rich, a dollar and a half each for certificates of 
nationality, I will release the foreigners from all the exactions, fines, and 
imposts whatever. I have the honor to be your obedient servant, 

"Benjamin F. But^ee, 

" Major- General Commanding.''' 1 

There is the whole case, written out, as all of General Bui ler's 
dispatches were, late at night, after, twelve or fifteen hours of intense 
exertion. After such a reaper there is scanty gleaning. 

Let me add, however, that among the documents relating to the 



320 FEEDING AND EMPLOYING THE POOR. 

expedition may be found many little notes, written in an educated, 
feminine hand, conveying to General Butler the thanks of " Sister 
Emily," " Mother Alphonso," and other Catholic ladies, for the 
assistance afforded by him to the orphans, the widows, and the 
sick under their charge ; " whose prayers," they add, " will daily 
ascend to Heaven in his behalf." During the latter half of his ad- 
ministration, the charities of New Orleans were almost wholly sus- 
tained from the funds wrung from " neutral" foes by Order No. 55. 
The great Charity hospital received, as we have seen, five thousand 
a month. To the orphans of St. Elizabeth, when the public funds 
ran low, the general gave five hundred dollars of his own money, 
besides ordering rations from the public stores at his own charge, 
and causing the Confederate notes held by the asylum to be dis- 
posed of to the best advantage. A commission was appointed, 
after a time, to inquire into the condition and needs of all the asy- 
lums, hospital and charity schools in the city, and to report the 
amount of aid proper to be allowed to each. The report of the 
coimnission shows, that the rations granted them by General Butler 
were all that enabled them to continue their ministrations to the 
helpless and the ignorant, the widow, the orphan, and the sick. 

I may afford space for a letter addressed by the commanding 
general to the Superior of the Sisters of Charity, upon the occasion 
of the accidental injury of their edifice during the bombardment of 
Donaldsonville. It is not precisely the kind of utterance which we 
should naturally expect from a " Beast." 

" Head-quarters, Department of the Gulf, 
New Orleans, September 2d, 1862. 

" Madame : I h°d information until the reception of jour note, that 
so sad a result to the sisters of your command had happened from the bom- 
bardmei-t of Donaldsonville. 

" I am very, very sorry that Rear- Admiral Farragut was unaware that 
he was injuring your establishment by his shells. Any injury must have 
been entirely accidental. The destruction of that town became a necessity. 
The inhabitants harbored a gang of cowardly guerillas, who committed 
every atrocity; amongst others, that of tiring upon an unarmed boat crowded 
with women and children, going up the coast, returning to their homes, 
many of them having been at school at New Orleans. 

" It is impossible to allow such acts; and I am only sorry that the right- 
eous punishment meted out to them in this instance, as indeed in all others, 
fell quite as heavily upon the innocent and unoffending as upon the guilty. 



FEEDING AXD EMPLOYING THE POOR. 



321 



" Iso one can appreciate more fully than myself the holy, self-sacrificing 
-abors of the sisters of charity. To them our soldiers a:e daily indebted 
for the kindest offices. Sisters of all mankind, they know no nation, no 
kindred, neither war nor peace. Their all-pervading charity is like the 
boundless love of 'Him who died for all,' whose servants they are, and 
whose pure teachings their love illustrates. 

" I repeat the expression of my grief, that any harm should have befallen 
j our society of sisters; and 1 cheerfully repair it, as far as I may, in the 
manner you suggest, by filling the order you have sent to the city for pro- 
visions and medicines. 

"• Tour sisters in the city will also farther testify to' you, that my officers 
and soldiers have never failed to do to them all in their power to aid them 
in their usefulness, and to lighten the burden of their labors. 

""With sentiments of the highest respect, believe me, your friend, 

"Benjamin F. Butler. 

Saxta Maeia Claea. 

" Superior and Sister of Charity.'' 1 

The relief afforded by Order No. 55, liberal as it was, did but 
alleviate the distresses of the poor. The whole land was stricken. 
The frequent marching of armed bodies swept the country of the 
scanty produce of a soil deserted by the ablest of its proprietors. 
In the city, life was just endurable ; beyond the Union lines, most 
of the people were hungry, half naked, and without medicine. 

" The condition of the people here," wrote General Butler to 
General Halleck, September 1st, " is a very alarming one. They 
literally come down to starvation. Xot only in the city, but in 
the country ; planters who, in peaceful times, would have spent the 
summer at Saratoga, are now on their plantations, essentially 
without food. Hundreds weekly, by stealth, are coming across 
the lake to the city, reporting starvation on the lake shore. I am 
distributing, in various ways, about fifty thousand dollars per month 
in food, and more is needed. This is to the whites. My commis- 
sary is issuing rations to the amount of nearly double the amount 
requhed by the troops. This is to the blacks. 

" They are now coming in by hundreds — say thousands — almost 
daily. Many of the plantations are deserted along the " coast," 
which, in this country's phrase, means the river, from the city to 
Natchez. Crops of sugar-cane are left standing, to waste, which 
would make millions of dollars worth of sugar." 

Such were some of the fruits .of this most disastrous and most 



322 



THE WOMAN ORDER. 



beneficent of all wars. Such were some of the difficulties with 
which the commander of the Department of the Gulf had to con- 
tend during the whole period of his administration. Clothed with 
powers more than imperial, such were some of the uses to which 
those powers were devoted. 

The government sustained Order No. 55. In December, the. 
money derived from it having been exhausted, the measure was 
repeated. 

" New Orleans, December 9, 1862. 

" Under General Order No. 55, current series fror 1 these head-quarters, 
an assessment was made upon certain parties who had aided the rebellion, 
'to be appropriated to the relief of the starving poor of New Orleans.' " 

u The calls upon the fund raised under that order have been frequent 
and urgent, and it is now exhausted. 

" But the poor of this city have the same, or increased necessities for re- 
lief as then, and their calls must be heard ; and it is both fit and proper 
that the parties responsible for the present state of affairs should have the 
burden of their support. 

" Therefore, the parties named in Schedules A and B, of General Order 
No. 55, as hereunto annexed, are assessed in like sums, and for the same 
purpose, and will make payment to D. C. G. Field, financial clerk, at his 
office, at these head-quarters, on or before Monday, December 15, 1862." 



CHAPTER XVHI. 

THE WOMAN ORDER. 

It concerns the people of the United States to know that seces- 
sion, regarded as a spiritual malady, is incurable. Every one knows 
this who, by serving on " the frontiers of the rebellion," has been 
brought in contact with its leaders. General Rosecrans knows it. 
General Grant knows it. General Burnside knows it. General 
Butler knows it. True, a large number of Southern men who 
have been touched with the epidemic, have recovered or are recov- 
ering. But the hundred and fifty thousand men who own the 



THE WOMAN OEDER. 



slaves of the South, who own the best of the lands, who have 
always controlled its politics and swayed its drawing-rooms, in 
whom the disease is hereditary or original, whom it possesses and 
pervades, like the leprosy or the scrofula, or, rather, like the false- 
ness of the Stuarts and the imbecility of the Bourbons — these men 
will remain, as long as they draw the breath of life, enemies of all 
the good meaning which is summed up in the words, United States. 
It is from studying the characters of these people that we moderns 
may learn why it was that the great Cromwell and his heroes 
called the adherents of the mean and cruel Stuarts by the name of 
"Malignants." They may be rendered innoxious by destroying 
their power, i. e., by abolishing slavery, which is their power ; but, 
as to converting them from the error of their minds, that is not 
possible. 

General Butler was aware of this from the beginning of the 
rebellion, and his ' experience in New Orleans was daily confirma- 
tion of his belief. Hence, his attitude toward the ruling class was 
warlike, and he strove in all ways to isolate that class, and bring the 
majority of the people to see who it was that had brought all this 
needless ruin upon their state; and thus to array the majority 
against the few. Throwing the whole weight of his power against 
the oligarchy, he endeavored to save and conciliate the people, 
whom it was the secret design of the leaders to degrade and dis- 
franchise. He was in New Orleans as a general wielding the power 
of his government, and as a democrat representing its principles. 

The first month of his administration was signalized by several 
warlike acts and utterances, aimed at the Spirit of Secession ; some 
of which excited a clamor throughout the whole secession world, on 
both continents, echoes of which are still occasionally heard. 

The following requires no explanation : 

" New Orleans, May 13, 1862. 
"It having come to the knowledge of the commanding general that 
Friday next is proposed to be observed as a day of fasting and prayer, in 
obedience to some supposed proclamation of one Jefferson Davis, in the 
several churches of this city, it is ordered that no such observance be 
had. 

" 1 Churches and religious houses are to be kept open as in time of pro- 
found peace, 1 but no religious exercises are to be had upon the sur posed 
authority above mentioned." 
14* 



324 



THE WOMAN ORDER. 



This was General Order No. 27. The one next issued, the fa- 
mous Order No. 28, which relates to the conduct of some of the 
women of New Orleans, can not be dismissed quite so summarily. 

One might have expected to find among thf women of the South 
many abolitionists of the most " radical" description. As upon the 
white race the blighting curse of slavery chiefly falls, so the women 
of that race suffer the consequences of the system which are the most 
degrading and the most painful. It leads their husbands astray, de- 
bauches their brothers and their sons, enervates and coarsens their 
daughters. The wastefulness of the institution, its bungling stu- 
pidity, the heavy and needless burdens it imposes upon house- 
keepers, would come home, we should think, to the minds of all 
women not wholly incapable of reflection. I am able to state, that 
here and there, in the South, even in the cotton states, there are 
ladies who feel all the enormity, and comprehend the immense stu- 
pidity of slavery. I have heard them avow their abhorrence of it. 
One in particular, I remember, on the borders of South Carolina 
itself, a mother, glancing covertly at her languid son, and saying in 
the low tone of despair : 

" You cannot tell me anything about slavery. We women know 
what it is, if the men do not." 

But it is the law of nature that the men and women of 
a community shall be morally equal. If all the women were 
made, by miracle, perfectly good, and all the men perfectly bad, in 
one generation the moral equality would be restored — the men 
vastly improved, the women reduced to the average of human 
worth. Consequently, we find the women of the South as much 
corrupted by slavery as the men, and not less zealous than the men 
in this insolent attempt to rend their country in pieces. In truth, 
they are more zealous, since women are naturally more vehement 
and enthusiastic than men. The women of New Orleans, too, all 
had husbands, sons, brothers, lovers or friends, in the Confederate 
army. To blame the women of a community for adhering, with 
their whole souls, to a cause for which their husbands, brothers, 
sons and lovers are fighting, would be to arraign the laws of nature. 
But then there is a choice of methods by which that adherence may 
cc manifested. 

When General Butler was passing through Baltimore, on his 
way to New Orleans, he observed the mode in which the Union 



THE WOMAX OEDEE. 



32.! 



soldiers stationed there were accustomed to behave when passing 
by ladies who wore the secession flag on their bosoms. The ladies, 
on approaching a soldier, would suddenly throw aside their cloaks 
or shawls to display the badge of treason. The soldier would re- 
tort by lifting the tail of his coat, to show the rebel flag doing duty, 
apparently, as a large patch on the seat of his trousers. The general 
noted the circumstance well. It occurred to him then that, perhaps, 
a more decent way could be contrived to shame the heroines of 
secession out of their silly tricks. 

The women of New Orleans by no means confined themselves to 
the display of minute rebel flags on their persons. They were in- 
solently and vulgarly demonstrative. They would leave the side- 
walk, on the approach of Union officers, and walk around them into 
the middle of the street, with up-turned noses and insulting words. 
On passing privates, they would make a great ostentation of draw- 
ing away their dresses, as if from the touch of pollution. Secession 
colors were conspicuously worn upon the bonnets. If a Union 
officer entered a street car, all the ladies in it would frequently 
leave the vehicle, with every expression of disgust ; even in church 
the same spirit was exhibited — ladies leaving the pews entered 
by a Union officer. The female teachers of the public schools 
kept their pupils singing rebel songs, and advised the girls to 
make manifest their contempt for the soldiers of the Union. 
Parties of ladies upon the balconies of houses, would turn their 
backs when soldiers were passing by ; while one of them would 
rim in to the piano, and thump out the Bonny Blue Flag, with the 
energy that lovely woman knows how to throw into a performance 
of that kind. One woman, a very fine lady, too, swept away her 
skirts, on one occasion, with so much violence as to lose her balance, 
and she fell into the gutter. The two officers whose proximity had 
excited her ire, approached to offer their assistance. She spurned 
them from her, saying, that she would rather lie in the gutter than 
oe helped out by Yankees. She afterward related the circum- 
stance to a Union officer, and owned that she had in reality felt 
grateful to the officers for their politeness, and added that Order 
Xo. 28 served the women right. The climax of these absurdities 
was reached when a beast of a woman spat in the faces of two offi- 
cers, who were walking peacefully along the street. 

It was this last event which determined General But ler to take 



326 



THE WOMAN OEDEE. 



public notice of the conduct of the women. At first their exhibitions 
and affectations of spleen merely amused the objects of them; 
who were accustomed to relate them to their comrades as the jokes 
of the day. And, so far, no officers or soldiers had done or said 
anything in the way of retort. No man in New Orleans had been 
wronged, no woman had been treated with disrespect by the 
soldiers of the United States. These things were done while Gen- 
eral Butler was feeding the poor of the city by thousands ; while 
he was working night and day to start and restore the business 
of the city ; while he was defending the people against the frauds 
of great capitalists ; while he was maintaining such order in New 
Orleans as it had never known before; while he was maturing 
measures designed solely for the benefit of the city ; while he was 
testifying in every way, by word and deed, his heartfelt desire to 
exert all the great powers intrusted to him for the good of New 
Orleans and Louisiana. 

It can not be denied that both officers and men became, at length, 
very sensitive to these annoyances. Complaints to the general 
were frequent. Colonels of regiments requested to be informed 
what orders they should give their men on the subject, and the 
younger staff officers often asked the general to save them from in- 
dignities which they could neither resent nor endure. Why, in- 
deed, should he permit his brave and virtuous New England sol- 
diers to be insulted by these silly, vulgar creatures, spoiled by 
contact with slavery ? And how long could he trust the forbear- 
ance of the troops ? These questions he had already considered, 
but the extreme difficulty of acting in such an affair with dignity 
and effect, had given him pause. But when the report of the spit- 
ting was brought to him, he determined to put a stop to such out 
rages before they provoked retaliation. 

It has been said, that the false construction put upon General 
Order No. 28, by the enemies of the United States, was due to the 
carelessness with which it was composed. Mr. Seward, in his con- 
versation on the subject with the English charge, "regretted that, 
in the haste of composition, a phraseology which could be mistaken 
or perverted had been used." The secretary of state was never 
more mistaken. The order was penned with the utmost care and 
deliberation, and all its probable consequences discussed. The 
problem was, how to put an end to the insulting behavior of the 



LHE WOMAN OEDEE. 



327 



women without being obliged to resort to arrests. So far, Ne w 
Orleans had been kept down by the mere show and presence of 
force ; it was highly desirable, for reasons of humanity as well as 
policy, that this should continue to be the case. If the order had 
said : Any woman who insults a Union soldier shall be arrested, 
committed to the calaboose and fined, — there would have been 
women who would have courted the distinction of arrest, to the 
great peril of the public tranquillity. If anything at all could have 
roused the populace to resist the troops, surely it would have been 
the arrest of a well-dressed women, for so popular an act as insult- 
ing a soldier of the United States. 

It was with the intent to accomplish the object without disturb- 
ance, that General Butler worded the order as we find it. The 
order was framed upon the model of one which he had read long 
ago in an ancient London chronicle. 

" Head-quaktees, Depaetment of the Gulf, 
" New Oeleans, May 15, 1862. 

" GeNEEAL OEDEE No. 28 : 

"As the officers and soldiers of the United States have been subject to re- ^ 
peated insults from the women (calling themselves ladies) of New Orleans. ) 
in return for the most scrupulous non-interference and courtesy on our Urn* tkv V^j,*.. 
part, it is ordered that hereafter when any female shall, by word, gesture, 
or movement, insult or show contempt for any officer or soldier of the Uni- 
ted States, she shall he regarded and held liable to be treated as a woman 
of the town plying her avocation." 

"By command of Majoe-Geneeal Butlee. 

"Geo. 0. Steong, A. A. G., Chief of Staff 

That is, she shall be held liable, according to the law of New 
Orleans, to be arrested, detained over night in the calaboose, 
brought before a magistrate in the morning, and fined five dollars. 

When the order had been written, and was about to be con- 
signed to irrevocable print, a leading member of the staff (Major 
Strong) said to General Butler : 

" After all, general, is it not possible that some of the troops 
may misunderstand the order ? It would be a great scandal if 
only one man should act upon it in the wrong way." 

" Let us, then," replied the general, " have one case of aggres- 
sion on our side. I shall know how to deal with that case, so that 



328 



TJIE WOMAX ORDER. 



it will never be repeated. So far, all the aggression has been 
against us. Here we are, conquerors in a conquered city ; we have 
respected every right, tried every means of conciliation, complied 
with every reasonable desire ; and yet we can not walk the streets 
without being outraged and spit upon by green girls. I do not 
»ear the troops; but if aggression must be, let it not be all 
against us" 

General Butler was, of course, perfectly aware, as we are, that 
if he had expressly commanded his troops to outrage and ravish 
every woman who insulted them, those men of New England and 
the West would not have thought of obeying him. If one miscre- 
ant among them had attempted it, the public opinion of his regi- 
ment would have crushed him. Every one who knows the men 
of that army feels how impossible it was that any of them should 
practically misinterpret an order of which the proper and innocent 
meaning was so palpable. 

The order was published. Its success was immediate and per- 
fect. Not that the women did not still continue, with the ingenuity 
of the sex, to manifest their repugnance to the troops. They 
did so. The piano still greeted the passing officer with rebel airs. 
The fair countenances of the ladies were still averted, and their 
skirts gently held aside. Still the balconies presented a view of 
the " back hair" of beauty. If the dear creatures did not leave the 
car when an officer entered it, they stirred not to give him room to 
sit down, and would not see his polite offer to hand their ticket to 
the driver. (No conductors in the- street cars of New Orleans.) 
It was a fashion to affect sickness at the stomach on such occasions ; 
which led the Delta to remark, that the ladies should remember 
that but for the presence of the Union forces some of the squeamish 
stomachs would have nothing in them. But the outrageous 
demonstrations ceased. No more insulting words were uttered ; 
and all the affectations of disgust were such as could be easily and 
properly borne by officers and men. Gradually even these wer^ 
discontinued. 

I need not add, that in no instance was the order misunderstood 
on the part of the troops. No man in the whole world misunder- 
stood it who was not glad of any pretext for reviling the sacred 
cause for which the United States has been called to contend. So 
far from causing the women of New Orleans to be wronged or 



THE WOMAN ORDER. 



molested, it was that which saved them from the only danger of 
molestation to which they were exposed. It threw around them 
the protection of law, not tore it away ; and such was the com- 
pleteness of its success, that not one arrest under Order No. 28 
has ever been made. 

General Butler was not long in discovering that the order was 
to be made the occasion of a prodigious hue and cry against his ad- 
ministration. The puppet mayor of New Orleans was the first to 
lift his little voice against it ; which led to important consequences. 

It had already become apparent to the general and to the officers 
aiding him, that two powers so hostile as the city government of 
New Orleans and the commander of the Department of the Gulf 
could not co-operate — could not long exist together. The mayor 
and common council had violated their compact with the general 
in every particular. They had agreed to clean the streets, and had 
not done it. They had engaged to enroll two hundred and fifty of 
the property-holders of the town to assist in keeping the peace, that 
General Butler might safely withdraw his troops. The two hun- 
dred and fifty proved to be men of the " Thug" species — the hangers- 
on of the City Hall. The European Brigade was to be retained in 
service ; the mayor disbanded it. Provisions had been sent out of 
the starving city to the hungry camp of General Lovell. Confede- 
rate notes, which had fallen to thirty cents, were redeemed by the 
city government at par, thus taxing the city one hundred cents to 
give thirty to the favorites of the mayor and council ; for the re- 
demption was not public and universal, but special and private. 
The tone and style of the city government, too, were a perpetual 
reiteration of the assertion, so dear to the deluded people of the 
eity, that New Orleans had not been conquered — only overcome by 
" brute force." Nothing but the general's extreme desire to give 
the arrangement of May 4th so fair a trial that the whole world 
would hold him guiltless in dissolving it, prevented his seizing upon 
the government of the city on the ninth of May. 

The following letter from General Butler to the mayor and coun- 
cil, will serve to show the state of feeling between them : 

/ " Head-qtjaetees, Depaetment of the Gulf, 

New Oeleans, May 16, 1862. 
M To the Mayor and Gentlemen of the City Council of New Orleans : 
" In the report of your official aGtion, published in the Bee of the 16th 



330 



THE WOMAN ORDEIt. 



instant, 1 find the following extracted resolutions, with the action of part 
of your body thereon, viz : 

" 'The following preamble and resolution, offered by Mr. Stith, were read 
twice and adopted. The rules being suspended, were, on motion, sent to 
the assistant board. 

" 1 Yeas — Messrs. De Labarre, Forestall, Huckins, Eodin, and Stith — 5. 

" ' Whereas, it has come to the knowledge of this council that, for the first 
ime in the history of this city, a large fleet of the navy of France is about 
to visit New Orleans — of which fleet the Oatinet, now in our port, is the 
pioneer — this council, bearing in grateful remembrance the many ties of 
amity and good feeling which unite the people of this city with those of 
France, to whose paternal protection New Orleans owes its foundation and 
early prosperity, and to whom it is especially grateful for the jealousy with 
which, in the cession of the state, it guaranteed all the rights of property, 
person, and religious freedom of its citizens — 

" 'Be it resolved, That the freedom and hospitalities of the city of New 
Orleans be tendered through the commander of the Catinet to the French 
naval fleet during its sojourn in our port; and that a committee of five 
of this council be appointed, with the mayor, to make such tender and such 
other arrangements as may be necessary to give effect to the same. 

" ' Messrs. Stith and Forestall were appointed on the committee mention- 
ed in the foregoing resolution.' 

" This action is an insult, as well to the United States, as to the friendly 
and powerful nation toward whose officers it is directed. The offer of the 
freedom of a captured city by the captives would merit letters-patent for 
its novelty, were there not doubts of its usefulness as an invention. The 
tender of its hospitalities by a government to which police duties and san- 
itary regulations only are intrusted, is simply an invitation to the calaboose 
or the hospital. The United States authorities are the only ones here capable 
of dealing with amicable or unamicable nations, and will see to it that such 
acts of courtesy or assistance are extended to any armed vessel of the em- 
peror of France as shall testify the national, traditional, and hereditary 
feelings of grateful remembrance with which the United States government 
and people appreciate the early aid of France, and her many acts of friendly 
regard, shown upon so many national and fitting occasions. 

" The action of the city council in this behalf must be revised. 
" Respectfully, 

U B. F. Butlee, Major- General Commanding. 

Such being the temper of the parties, an explosion was to be ex- 
pected upon the first occasion. Order No. 28 was the spark 
which blew up the city government. 

On the day on which the order appeared in the newspapers, the 



THE WOMAN ORDER. 



331 



mayor sent to General Butler the following lettei , which was writ- 
ten for him by his secretary, Mr. Duncan, formerly of the Delta : 

" State of Louisiana, Mayoealty of New Oeleans, 

"May 16, 1862. 

"Major-General Benjamin F. Btjtlee, Commanding United States Forces.. 

" Sie : — Your General Order, No. 28, of date 15th inst., which reads as fol 
lows, is of a character so extraordinary and astonishing that I can not, hold- 
ing the office of chief magistrate of this city, chargeable with its peace and 
dignity, suffer it to he promulgated in our presence without protesting 
against the threat it contains, which has already aroused the passions of 
our people, and must exasperate them to a degree beyond control. Your 
officers and soldiers are permitted, by the terms of this order, to place any 
construction they may please upon the conduct of our wives and daughters, 
and, upon such construction, to offer them atrocious insults. The peace 
of the city and the safety of your officers and soldiers from harm or insult 
have, I affirm, been successfully secured to an extent enabling them to 
move through our streets almost unnoticed, according to the understanding 
and agreement entered into between yourself and the city authorities. I 
did not, however, anticipate a war upon women and children, who, so far 
as I am aware, have only manifested their displeasure at the occupation of 
their city by those whom they believe to be their enemies, and I will never 
undertake to be responsible for the peace of New Orleans while such an 
edict, which infuriates our citizens, remains in force. To give a license to 
the officers and soldiers of your command to commit outrages, such as are 
indicated in your order, upon defenseless women is. in my judgment, a re- 
proach to the civilization, not to say to the Christianity, of the age, in whose 
name I make this protest. I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

"John T. Moneoe, Mayor." 

To this General Butler replied with promptness and brevity, and 
sent his reply by the hands of the provost-marshal : 

" Head-quaetees, Depaetment of the Gulf, 
"New Oeleans, May 16, 1862. 
" John T. Monroe, late mayor of the city of New Orleans, is relieved 
from all responsibility for the peace of the city, and is suspended from the 
exercise of any official functions, and committed to Fort Jackson until far- 
ther orders. B. F. Butlee, Major- General Commanding." 

The mayor, however, was indulged with an interview with the 
commanding general. He remonstrated against the order for his 
imprisonment. The general told him, in reply, that if he could no 
longer control the " aroused passions of the people of New Or- 
leans," it was highly necessary that he should not only be relieved 



332 



THE W03IAX 0EDEE. 



from any further responsibility for the tranquillity of the city, but 
be sent himself to a place of safety : which Fort Jackson was. 
The letter, added the general, was an insult which no officer, repre- 
senting the majesty of the United States in a captured city, ought 
to submit to. The mayor, whose courage always oozed away in 
the presence of General Butler, declared that he had had no in- 
tention to insult the general : he had only intended to vindicate the 
honor of the virtuous ladies of New Orleans. 

" No vindication is necessary," said General Butler, " because the 
order does not contemplate or allude to virtuous women." None 
such, he believed, could have meant to insult his officers or men by 
word, look, or gesture, and the order was aimed only at those who 
had. 

Finding the mayor pliant and reasonable, as he always was in the 
absence of his supporters, General Butler expounded the order to 
him at great length, and with perfect courtesy. The mayor then 
declared that he was perfectly satisfied, and asked to be allowed to 
withdraw his offensive letter. General Butler, knowing well the 
necessity, in all dealings with puppets, of having something to show 
in writing, wrote the following words at the end of the mayor's 
letter : 

" Geneeal Butlee : — This communication having been sent under a mis- 
take of fact, and being improper in language, I desire to apologize for the 
same, and to withdraw it." 

This the mayor signed, and the general relieved him from arrest. - 
The mayor then departed, and the general hoped he had done with 
Order No. 28. 

It was very far, however, from the intention of the gentlemen 
who had the mayor of New Orleans in charge, to forego their op- 
portunity of firing the southern heart. In the evening of the same 
1 6th of May, General Butler received the following note : 

"Mayoealty of New Oeleans, 
"City Hall, May 16, 1862. 

" Hajor-General Btjtlee : 

" Sie : — Having misunderstood you yesterday in relation to your General 
Order ISTo. 28, I wish to withdraw the indorsement I made on the letter 
addressed to you yesterday. Please deliver the letter to my secretary, Mr 
Duncan, who will hand you this note. Your obedient servant, 

"John T. Monboe." 

General Butler immediately replied in the following terms : 



THE WOilAX ORDER. 



Head-quaetees, Depaetmext of the Gulf. 
" ^ t ev Oeleaxs. May 16, 1862. 
" Sie : — There can be, there has been, no room for the misunderstand- 
ing of General Order 2s~o. 28. 

"No lady will take any notice of a strange gentleman, and a fortiori of 
a stranger, in such form as to attract attention. Common women do. 

" Therefore, whatever woman, ladv or mistress, gentle or simple, who. 
by gesture, look or word, insults, shows contempt for, thus attracting to 
herself the notice of my officers or soldiers, will be deemed to act as be- 
comes her vocation of common woman, and will be liable to be treated ac- 
cordingly. This was most fully explained to you at my office. 

"I shall not. as I have not, abated a single word of that order; it was 
well considered. If obeyed, it will protect the true and modest woman from 
all possible insult. The others will take care of themselves. 

" You can publish your letter, if you publish this note, and your apology. 
"Respectfully. Benjamin F. Btjtlee, 

Major- General Commanding. 
"John T. Monroe, Mayor of New Orleans.'''' 

To this the mayor replied by sending to the general a copy of 
his first letter. General Butler summoned him again to head- 
quarters ; he came accompanied by his secretary, Duncan. In the 
presence of the general his courage failed him again, and he de- 
clared that he did not wish to send the offensive letter if he could 
publish what the general had said to him yesterday, that Order No. 
28 did not refer to all the ladies of New Orleans. With even an 
excess of patience, the general replied, that to prevent all possi- 
bility of misunderstanding he would put in writing at the bottom 
of a copy of the order a statement in accordance with the mayor's 
desires, which he would be at liberty to publish. So he wrote : 

"You may say that this order refers to those women who have shown 
contempt for and insulted my soldiers, by words, gestures, and movements, 
m their presence. B. F. Btjtlee." 

Duncan asked the insertion of the word " only" after " women.'' 
The general assented to this also ; when the mayor and his secre- 
tary retired, taking the documents with them. Again General 
Butler indulged the hope that the affair was satisfactorily adjusted. 

Far from it. Thu next morning, which was Sunday, the mayor and 
a large party of his friends presented themselves at the private parlor 
jf the general. The mayor said that he had come for the purpose of 
withdrawing his apology. General Butler replied that Sunday 



334 



THE WOMAN OEDEE. 



was not a business day with him, but if the Mayor desired to with- 
draw his apology, and would place himself, on Monday morning, 
in the chair in which he had sat when he signed it, he should have 
a full opportunity to do so. The general added, that he would be 
glad to see him the next morning, and as many friends as he chose 
to bring with him. 

Meanwhile, information had been brought to head-quarters of a 
conspiracy among the paroled rebel prisoners in New Orleans, to 
procure arms and force their way beyond the Union lines and 
join General Lovell. Six of them had been arrested. The con- 
spirators, it appeared, had called themselves the Monroe Guard, 
after the mayor, from whom they expected substantial aid — had 
probably received substantial aid already. The general was re- 
solved to make short work with the mayor at their next interview. 

On Monday morning the mayor presented himself at head-quar- 
ters, accompanied by his chief of police, a lieutenant of police, his 
private secretary, one of the city judges, and several others of his 
special backers ; seven or eight persons in all. General Butler did 
not wait for the attack of this imposing force, but opened upon them 
as soon as they were in position. He made a clear and forcible 
statement of the many ways in which the city government had 
failed to observe the compact of May 4th. He told them that while 
he had been employing all the resources of his mind and of his posi- 
tion to keep the poor of the city from starving, the whole power 
and means of the city authorities had been expended in supporting 
the Confederate cause — by sending provisions to LovelPs camp, by 
contributing money for the maintenance of Confederate agents in 
the city, and by placing every obstacle in the way of the purifica- 
tion of the streets. He announced the discovery of the conspiracy 
among the paroled prisoners, the sentence of six of them to death ; 
and discoursed upon the significance of the naming of the corps 
after the mayor. All this conflict of authority and of moral influ- 
ence must cease, and cease at once. He had resolved to have no 
more of " this weathercock business." 

After a long interview, he brought the matter to a very simple 
and direct issue. He saw before him the men who had inspired 
and upheld the mayor in his unnatural and unwilling contumacy. 
To each of them he addressed a question, the answer to which 
would fix his political position and indicate his future course ■ 



THE WOMAX OEDEE. 



335 



"Judge Kennedy, do you sanction the mayor's letter in its sub- 
stance and effect ?" 

Answer : " I sustain no insulting expression in this letter. The 
construction which the letter puts upon the order is the construc- 
tion put upon it in this city generally. If I had been in the mayor's 
place, I should have claimed a modification, or an announcement of 
its intended construction.'' 

General Butler : " Do you not believe the letter insulting ? Do 
you aid and abet the mayor ? Do you sustain the mayor in reit- 
erating the letter ?" 

Kennedy : " I can not answer. I will answer neither yes nor no, 
for the simple reason that it will not cover the position I take. I 
would not, in any communication with General Butler, use insult- 
ing language myself." 

The question was then proposed to the other gentlemen in turn. 

Chief of Police : " I do sustain the mayor." 

Lieutenant of Police : " I have not given the letter a thought. I 
have never read the letter before." 
Mr. Harris : The same answer. 

Mr. "Whann : "I do not sustain or repudiate the letter, as I know 
nothing about it." 

Mr. Pettigrew : " I sustain the mayor." 

Mr. Duncan confessed to having " assisted in the composition of 
the letter." 

General Butler then ordered the committal to Fort Jackson of the 
late mayor, the chief of police, Judge Kennedy and Mr. Duncan. 
The others were dismissed. The mayor, finally wished to know if 
his apology would be considered withdrawn. General Butler as- 
sured him that when the letter and the apology were published, 
the withdrawal of the apology should be distinctly stated. 

The mayor was afterward removed to Fort Pickens. The offer was 
always open to him to take the oath and return home. Some of his 
friends, it is said, prevailed upon him, at length, to return home on 
that hard condition; and General Butler consenting, his wife went 
to Fort Pickens after him. The officer who accompanied her 
chanced to hand the mayor a newspaper which contained a positive 
announcement that France had recognized the Confederacy. The 
worthy mayor instantly changed his mind, refused to take the oath, 
and permitted a faithful spouse to depart without him. 



336 



THE WOMAN ORDER. 



The mayor being deposed, the executive part of the city govern 
ment was at once suspended, and the business of governing New 
Orleans devolved upon the military commandant, General G. F. 
Shepley, of Maine. The woman order, however, merely hastened 
an event which the expiration of the mayor's term of office would 
have effected in a few days ; for General Butler had already deter- 
mined that no man should again be elected to office in New Orleam 
who had not taken the oath of allegiance to his country's govern 
ment. 

The day after the scene just related, General Shepley issued tht 
following 

" NOTICE. 

" Head-quaetees, Militaet Commandant of New Oeleans, 
" Custom-House, May 20, 1862. 

" In the absence of the late mayor of New Orleans, by order of Major- 
General B. F. Butler, commanding the Department of the Gulf, the mili- 
tary commandant of New Orleans will, for the present, and until such time 
as the citizens of New Orleans shall elect a loyal citizen of New Orleans 
and of the United States as mayor of the city, discharge the functions 
which have hitherto appertained to that office. 

"He assures the peaceable citizens of New Orleans, that he will afford 
the most ample protection to their persons and property, and their honor. 

" No officer or soldier of the United States army will be permitted to 
insult or annoy any peaceable citizen, or in any way to invade his personal 
rights, or rights of property. 

u No citizen will be permitted to insult or interfere with any officer or 
soldier in the discharge of his duty. 

u No person hereafter will denounce or threaten with personal violence 
any citizen of the United States for the expression of Union and loyal senti- 
ments. The punishment for these offenses will be speedy and effectual. 

" The functions of the chief of police wiL be exercised by Captain Jonas H. 
French, provost-marshal, to whom all police-officers will report immediate- 
ly. He is intrusted with the duty of organizing the police force of the city,, 
and will continue in office those found to be trustworthy, honest, and loyal. 

"The several recorders are hereby suspended from the discharge of the 
functions of their offices, and Major Joseph M. Bell, provost judge, will 
hear and determine all complaints for the violation of the peace and good 
order of the city, of its ordinances or of the laws of the United States. 

" The laws and general ordinances of the city of New Orleans, excepting . 
6uch as may be inconsistent with the constitution and laws of the United 
States, or with any general order issued by the commanding general of this 
department, or with this order, are hereby continued in force. 



THE WOMAN OEDEE. 



337 



" All contracts and engagements heretofore legally entered in by the city 
of New Orleans, or under the authority thereof, subject to the limitations 
of the foregoing paragraph, shall be held inviolate, and faithfully carried out. 

"It is expected, and will be required, that all contractors shall continue 
to perform the duties and obligations resting upon them by contracts now 
in force, and all such parties will be held to rigid accountability. 

" The military commandant desires the co-operation of all good citizens 
to enable him to carry out the duties assumed. 

" He invites, and will speedily ask, the aid of a number of citizens of re- 
spectability and character, to aid in the department of the city finances, as 
well as in what pertains to the health, lighting, paving, cleansing, drainage, 
wharves, levees, and generally, all municipal affairs not excepted from civil 
control by the proclamation of the commanding general, or by this order ; 
and in the meantime, all officers now charged with such functions, are re- 
tained in their respective employments until farther orders. 

"In all questions of the construction and interpretation of the laws per- 
taining to the city and its government, and of the ordinances thereof, the 
military commandant will seek the guidance of a professional man of known 
probity and intelligence. 

"The military commandant will be most happy to receive from any citi- 
zen of New Orleans written or oral suggestions, touching the welfare and 
good government thereof. 

" In conclusion, the military commandant assures the entire population 
of the city, that the restoration of the authority of the United States is the 
re-establishment of peace, order and morality ; safety to life, liberty and 
property under the law, and a guarantee of the future prosperity and glory 
of the crescent city, under the protection of the American government and 
constitution. 

" To promote these ends, his own most strenuous efforts will be unceas- 
ingly devoted, and to their consummation, he earnestly invites the co-opera 
tion of his fellow-citizens of New Orleans. 

" G-. F. Sheplet, Military Commandant of New Orleans. 

"Edwin Ilslet, A. A. A. 

General Shepley proceeded with vigor to organize the govern 
ment. Colonel French advertised for five hundred policemen. 
Judicious appointments were made in every department, and the 
municipal revolution was accomplished without disturbance. Among 
General Shepley' s first orders we notice the following : 

"geneeal oedees. 
" Office Militaey Commandant of New Oeleans, 
" City Hall, May 28, 1862. 
" Hereafter in the churches in the city of New Orleans, prayers will not 



338 



THE WOJIAS OEDEE. 



be offered up for the destruction of the Union or constitution of the 
United States, for the success of rebel armies, for the Confederate States, 
so called, or any officers of the same, civil or military, in their official 
capacity. 

"While protection will be afforded to all churches, religious houses, 
and establishments, and religious ' services are to be held as in times of 
profound peace,' this protection will not be allowed to be perverted to 
the upholding of treason or advocacy of it in any form. 

" Where thus perverted, it will be withdrawn. 

" G. F. Sheplet, Military Commandant" 

This order was complied with only in the letter. Thenceforward, 
in reaching that part of the service where prayers were accustomed 
to be offered for Jefferson Davis, the minister would say : " Let us 
now spend a few moments in silent prayer. ' 

After suppressing the city government, it seemed to General 
Butler unjust and unwise to permit that potent instigator and di- 
rector of treason, Mr. Pierre Soule, to remain in the city. It was 
he who had assisted in the composition of the mayor's insolent let- 
ter to Captain Farragut. It was he who had countenanced, per- 
haps caused, the burning of the cotton. It was he who was the 
moral support of the contumacy of secession in New Orleans. 
Upon him secession chiefly relied to give it voice and effect. 
General Butler was clearly of opinion that to render New Orleans 
a dead thing to secession, it was indispensable to send away a man 
so powerful to nourish hostility to the Union. Captain Conant 
accomplished the arrest with his usual tact, and Mr. Soule, after 
ample time to arrange his private business, was consigned to 
Fort Warren, in Boston harbor. General Butler, some time after- 
ward, requested the government to release the prisoner on his 
parole not to return to New Orleans, nor commit or advise any 
act hostile to the United States, which was done. 

Few men have had a more varied career than Pierre Soule. A 
native of France — a Paris lawyer — a Paris journalist — a fugitive to 
the West Indies — an emigrant to New Orleans — a lawyer there of 
brilliant position — a senator of the United States — a minister to 
Madrid, where he wounded the French embassador in a duel — a 
member of the Ostend Cuba-coveting conference — a lawyer again in 
New Orleans — a Unionist — a rebel — a prisoner of state. 

Before takmg leave of the woman order and its consequences, it 



THE WOMAN ORDER. 



339 



is proper to notice the use made of it by the enemies of the United 
States. The screech which arose from all parts of Secessia fur- 
nishes another proof that this rebellion, which was begun in false- 
hood, has been sustained by falsehood alone. I will give here a 
few of the rebel comments. 

The following " appeal" appeared in most of the southern pa- 
pers : 

" An Appeal to every Southern Soldiee. — "We turn to you in mute 
agony ! Behold our wrongs ! Fathers ! husbands ! brothers ! sons ! we 
know these bitter, burning wrongs will be fully avenged — never did south- 
ern women appeal in vain for protection from insult ! But, for the sake of 
your sisters throughout the south, with tears we implore you not to sur- 
render your cities, ' in consideration of the defenseless women and chil- 
dren!' Do not leave your women to the mercy of this merciless foe! 
Would it not have been better for New Orleans to have been laid in ruins, 
and we buried up beneath the mass, than that we should be subjected to 
these untold sufferings ? Is life so "precious a boon that, for the preserva- 
tion of it, no sacrifice is too great ? Ah, no ! ah, no ! Kather let us die 
with you, oh, our fathers ! Kather, like Virginius, plunge your own swords 
into our breasts, saying, ' This is all we can give our daughters.' 

" The Daughters of New Orleans. 

"New Orleans, May 24, 1862." 

The governor of Louisiana discoursed upon the inviting topic in 
an address to the people. 

" History records instances of cities sacked, and inhuman atrocities com- 
mitted upon the women of a conquered town, but in no instance, in modern 
times, at least, without the brutal ravishers suffering condign punishment 
from the hands of their own commanders. It was reserved for a federal 
general to invite his soldiers to the perpetration of outrages, at the mention 
of which the blood recoils in horror — to quicken the impulse of their sen- 
sual instincts by the suggestion of transparent excuses for their gratifica- 
tion, and to add to an infamy already well merited these crowning titles of 
a panderer to lust and a desecrator of virtue. 

" Organize, then, quickly and efficiently. If your enemy attempt to pro- 
ceed into the interior, let his pathway be marked by his blood. It is your 
homes that you have to defend. It is the jewel of your hearths, the chas- 
tity of your women, you have to guard. Let that thought animate your 
breasts, nerve your arms, quicken your energies, and inspire your resolu- 
tion. Strike home to the heart of your foe the blow that rids your country 
of hi» presence. If needs be, let his blood moisten your own grave. It 
15 



340 



THE WOMAN ORDER. 



will rise up before your children as a perpetual memento of a race whom it 
will teach to hate now and evermore." 

A fair and indignant Georgian wrote to one of the newspapers 
of Savannah : 

" Editor of the Republican — Seeing your spirited notice in this morning's 
paper, of the offer of a noble Hississippian to give a reward of $10,000 for 
the infamous Butler's head, can you not suggest, through your valuable 
journal, the propriety of every woman in our Confederacy contributing her 
mite to triple the sum, for a consummation dear to the insulted honor of 
our countrywomen, one and all? 

"Respectfully, A Savannah Woman. 

"Savannah, June 10, 1862." 

Mr. Paul H. Hayne, a very worthy young gentleman and poet 
of Charleston, was "carried away" by the tide of feeling, and 
achieved a poem that is only ludicrous when we consider the real 
character of the event which called it forth. 

BUTLER'S PROCLAMATION. 

BY PAUL H. HAYNE. 

"It is ordered that hereafter, when any female shall, by word, gesture, 
or movement, insult or show contempt for any officer or soldier of the Uni- 
ted States, she shall be regarded and held liable to be treated as a woman of 
the town plying her avocation. v — Butler's Order at New Orleans" 

" Ay ! drop the treacherous mask ! throw by 
The cloak which veiled thine instincts fell ; 

Stand forth, thou base, incarnate Lie, 
Stamped with the signet brand of hell ; 

At last we view thee as thou art, 

A trickster with a demon's heart. 

" O soldiers, husbands, brothers, sires ! 
Think that each stalwart blow ye give 
Shall quench the rage of lustful fires, 
And bid your glorious women live 
Pure from a wrong whose tainted breath 
"Were fouler than the foulest death. 



******* 



THE WOMAN ORDER. 



" Yes ! but there's one loho shall not die 

In battle harness ! One for whom 
Lurks in the darkness silently 

Another and a sterner doom ! 
A warrior's end should crown the brave — 
For him, swift cord ! and felon grave ! 

" As loathsome, charnel vapors melt, 

Swept by invisible winds to naught, 
So, may this fiend of lust and guilt 

Die like nightmare's hideous thought ! 
Naught left to mark the mother's name, 
Save — immortality of sjiame!" 

It pleased the English friends of the Confederacy, to place upon 
Order No. 28, the same preposterous construction. For them, 
however, there was this excuse : they had read " Napier's History 
of the Peninsular War." They knew how savages in red coats had 
been wont to conduct themselves in captured cities, and naturally 
concluded that patriots in blue would follow their example. But it 
is difficult to believe in the sincerity of noble lords and members 
of the house of commons, when they adopted and echoed back the 
rebel screech. We hesitate to think that men intrusted with the 
government of a great country can be so easily taken in. 

Lord Palmerston. — tk I am quite prepared to say, that I think no man could 
have read the proclamation to which our attention has been drawn, with- 
out a feeling of the deepest indignation — (cheers from bo1<fr sides of the 
house) — a proclamation to which I do not scruple to attach the epithet in- 
famous. (Benewed cheering.) Sir, an Englishman must blush to think 
that such an act has been committed by one belonging to the Anglo-Saxon 
race. (Cheers.) If it Jiad come from some baroarous race that was not 
within the pale of civilization, one might have regretted it, but might not 
have been surprised ; bnt that such an order should have been promulgated 
by a soldier — (cheers) — by one who had raised himself to the rank of gen- 
eral, is a subject undoubtedly of not less astonishment than pain. (Cheers.) 
Sir, I can not bring myself to believe but that the government of the United 
States, whenever they had notice of this order, must, of their own accord, 
have stamped it with their censure and condemnation." 

Punch, too, whose laugh was always humane and just, till the 



342 



THE WOMAN OEDEE. 



slaveholders of the southern states rose in arms against all that 
Englishmen used to hold dear, had his little song on the subject : 

" Haynau's lash tore woman's back, 
When she riz his dander. 
Butler, by his edict black, 

Stumps that famed commander. 
Wreaking upon maid and dame 

Savagery subtler : 
None but Nena Sahib name 
Along with General Butler. 
Yankee doodle, doodle doo, 

Yankee doodle dandy ; 
Butler is a rare Yahoo, 
As brave as Sepoy Pandy." 

These perverse and ridiculous passages may serve as encourage- 
ment to public men who are called to act in novel and difficult 
circumstances. They show the emptiness and harmlessness of 
partisan clamor when it is aimed against a measure which is wise, 
humane and right. General Butler could not have been quite in- 
different to vituperation like this — no man could have been. He 
took no public notice of it at the time, having more important 
affairs upon his hands ; but, among his private letters, there is one 
which briefly vindicates the order. 

" I am as jealous," he wrote, " of the good opinion of my friends 
as I am careless of the slanders of my enemies, and your kind ex- 
pressions wifh regard to Order No. 28 lead me to say a word to 
you on the subject. 

" That it could ever have been so misconceived as it has been by 
some portions of the northern press, is wonderful, and would lead 
me to exclaim, with the Jew, ' Oh ! Father Abraham, what these 
Christians are, whose own hard dealings teach them suspect the 
thoughts of others !' 

" What was the state of things to which the woman order ap- 
plied ? 

" We were two thousand five hundred men, in a city seven 
miles long by two to four wide, of a hundred and fifty thousand in- 
habitants, all hostile, bitter, defiant, explosive ; standing literally 
on a magazine, a spark only needed for destruction. The devil 



THE WOMAN ORDER. 



343 



had entered the hearts of the women of this town (you know 
seven of them chose Mary Magdalene for a residence) to stir up 
strife in every way possible. Every opprobrious epithet, every 
insulting gesture, was made by these be-jeweled, crinolined and 
laced creatures, calling themselves ladies, toward my soldiers and 
officers, from the windows of houses and in the streets. How long 
do you suppose our flesh and blood could have stood this without 
retort ? That would have led to disturbances and riot, from which 
we must have cleared the streets with artillery — and then a howl 
that we had murdered these fine women. I had arrested the men 
who had hurrahed for Beauregard. Could I arrest the women ? 
~No. What was to be done ? ~No order could be made save one 
which would execute itself. With anxious care, I thought I had 
hit upon this : ' Women who insult my soldiers are to be regarded 
and treated as common women, plying their vocation.' 

" Pray, how do you treat a common woman plying her vocation 
in the streets? You pass her by unheeded. She can not insult 
you. As a gentleman, you can and will take no notice of her. If 
she speaks, her words are not opprobrious. It is only when she 
becomes a continuous and positive nuisance, that you call a watch- 
man and give her in charge to him. 

" But some of the northern editors seem to think that whenever 
one meets such a woman, we must stop her, talk with her, insult 
her, hold dalliance with her, and so from their own conduct they 
construed my order. 

" The editor of the Boston Courier may so deal with common 
women, and out of the abundance of his heart his mouth may speak. 
But so do not I. 

" Why, these she-adders of ~New Orleans themselves were at once 
tamed into propriety of conduct by the order, and from that day 
no woman has either insulted or annoyed any live soldier or officer, 
and of a certainty no soldier has insulted any woman. 

" When I passed through Baltimore on the 23d of February last, 
members of my staff were insulted by the gestures of the ladies (?) 
there. Not so in New Orleans. * * * 

" I can only say that I would issue the order again under like 
circumstances." 

Among the women of New Orleans there were some whc knew 
how to maintain, and even assert, their fidelity to the Confederate 



344 THE WOMAN ORDER. 

cause, without forgetting the courtesy due to officers of the United 
States who were simply doing their duty. To such General Butler 
and his staff were as complaisant as their duty permitted. The 
case of Mrs. Slocomb and her daughter Mrs. Urquhart, may be 
cited in illustration. These ladies applied for a pass to enable them 
to go to their country house, but stated with courteous frankness, 
that they could not take the oath of allegiance to the United States. 
At the beginning of the war, they said, they had desired the pres- 
ervation of the Union ; but now all their male friends and connec- 
tions were in the Confederate army ; one of them had lost a son, 
the other a brother, in the service ; and they were now unalterably 
devoted to the cause, which they deemed just, noble, and holy. 
General Butler said to them, that he would make an exception to 
his rule and grant them the pass, if they would give up their spa- 
cious town house for the use of the United States during their ab- 
sence, as he required such a house for his head-quarters. Mrs. Slo- 
comb hesitated. With tears in her eyes, she said that her house 
was endeared to her by a thousand tender associations, and was 
now dearer to her than ever. She did not see how she could give 
it up. 

The general said, that he " experienced peculiar pleasure in meet- 
ing ladies who, while they were enemies to his country, were yet 
so frank, so truthful and devoted, and remarked that if New Or- 
leans had been defended by an army of such women as Mrs. Urqu- 
hart, he believed the Union army would have had considerable 
trouble in capturing the city. In regard to their house he assured 
them that, although he had the power to take it, yet without their 
permission it should not be occupied, nor a brick of it be molested, 
unless indeed, the city was ravaged by yellow fever, in which case 
he might be obliged to take every house suitable for hospital pur- 
poses ; and he added, if I can find any other reason for making you 
an exception to my rule prohibiting passes to any who refuse to 
take the oath, I will do it." 

Happily, he found such a reason. A day or two after, he wrote 
to the ladies : " I have the pleasure to inform you, that my necessi- 
ties, which caused the request for permission to use your house dur- 
ing your absence this summer, have been relieved. I have taken 
the house of General Twiggs, late of the United States Army, for 
quarters. Inclined never on slight causes to use the power intrust- 



THE WOMAN ORDEE. 



345 



ed to me tc grieve even sentiments only entitled to respect from 
the courage and ladylike propriety of manner in which they were 
avowed ; it is gratifying to be enabled to yield to the appeal you 
made for favor and protection by the United States. Yours shall 
be the solitary exception to the general rule adopted, that they who 
ask protection must take upon themselves corresponding obliga- 
tions or do an equal favor to the government. I have an aged 
mother at home, who, like you, might request the inviolability of 
hearthstone and roof tree from the presence of a stranger. For 
her sake you shall have the pass you ask, which is sent herewith. 
As I did myself the honor to say personally, you may leave the city 
with no fear that your house will be interfered with by any exer- 
cise of military right; but will be safe under the laws of the United 
States. Trusting that the inexorable logic of events will convict 
you of wrong toward your country, when all else has failed, I re- 
main," etc. 

Mrs. Slocomb acknowledged the favor : " Permit me to return 
my sincere thanks for the special permit to leave, which you have 
so kindly granted to myself and family, as also for the protection 
promised to my property. Knowing that we have no claim for any 
exception in our favor, this generous act calls loudly upon our grate- 
ful hearts, and hereafter, while praying earnestly for the cause we 
love so much, we shall never forget the liberality with which our 
request has been granted by one whose power here reminds us 
painfully that our enemies are more magnanimous than our citizens 
are brave." 

Another instance. Mrs. Beauregard, the wife of the Confederate 
general, and her mother, were residing in the mansion of Slidell, 
the rebel emissary to France, who had lent it to them during his 
absence. This house being sequestered, Lieutenant Kinsman went 
to take possession, not knowing by whom it was occupied. Those 
distinguished and amiable ladies received the officer with dignity 
and politeness. He reported the fact of their occupation of the 
house to the commanding general, who immediately ordered that 
fchoy should be allowed to reside in it undisturbed. There they re- 
mained, honored equally by the Union officers and by the people 
of the city. 



346 



EXECUTION OF MUMFORD. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

EXECUTION OF MUMFOED. 

The crime for which Mumford suffered death has been already 
related. If in the act of tearing down the flag of his country, he 
had fallen dead upon the roof of the Mint, from the fire of the 
howitzers in the main-top of the Pensacola, no one could have 
charged aught against those who had the honor of that flag in 
charge. His offense was two-fold : he insulted the flag of his coun- 
try, and endangered the lives of innocent fellow-citizens by drawing 
the fire of the fleet. His life was justly forfeited to the United 
States and to New Orleans. His life, moreover, was not a valuable 
one ; he was one of those who live by preying upon society, not by 
serving it. He. was a professional gambler. Rather a fine-look- 
ing man, tall, black-bearded ; age forty-two. 

After the occupation of the city by the troops, he still appeared 
in the streets, bold, reckless and defiant, one of the heroes of the 
populace. He was seen even in front of the St. Charles hotel, re- 
lating his exploit to a circle of admirers, boasting of it, daring the 
Union authorities to molest him. He did this once too often. He 
was arrested and tried by a military commission, who condemned 
him to death, and General Butler approved the sentence, and or 
dered its execution. 

Special Oedee No. 10. 

"New Oeleans, June 5, 1862. 

" William B. Mumford, a citizen of New Orleans, having been convict 
ed before the military commission of treason and an overt act thereof, in 
tearing down the United States flag from a public building of the United 
States, for the purpose of inciting other evil-minded persons to farther resis- 
tance to the laws and arms of the United States, after said flag was placed 
there by Commodore Farragui, of the United States navy, 

"It is ordered that he be executed, according to the sentence of the said 
military commission, on Saturday, June 7th instant, between the hours of 
8 a. m. and 12 m., under the direction of the provost-marshal of the distriot 
of New Orleans ; and for so doing, this shall be his sufficient warrant." 

During his trial and after his condemnation, he showed neither 
fear nor contrition ; evidently expected a commutation of his sen- 



EXECUTION OF MUMFORD. 



347 



fence, not believing that General Butler would dare execute it. 
His friends, the Thugs and gamblers of the city, openly defied the 
general ; resolved, in council assembled, not to petition for b'.s par- 
don ; bound themselves to assassinate General Butler if Mumford 
were hanged. These things were duly reported to the general by 
his detective police, and were a common topic of conversation in 
the city. It was the almost universal belief that the condemned 
man would be brought to the gallows and there, reprieved — accord- 
ing to the cruel blank-cartridge mode of weak governments. 

While the friends of Mumford were thus building up a wall be- 
tween him and the chance of pardon, the case was forther com- 
plicated by the arrest and condemnation of the six paroled prisoners, 
part of the Monroe Guard, who had conspired to break away to 
the rebel camp. Their sentence also, the general approved : 

Geneeal Obdee No. 36. 

"New Oeleans, May 31. 1862. 

"Abraham McLane, Daniel Doyle, Edward 0. Smith, Patrick Kane, 
George L. Williams, and Wm. Stanley, all enlisted men in the forces of the 
supposed Confederate States, captured at the surrender of Forts St. Philip 
and Jackson, have violated their parole of honor, under which they, as pris- 
oners of war, were permitted to return to their homes, instead of being 
confined in prison, as have the unfortunates of the United States soldiers, 
who, falling into the hands of the rebel chiefs, have languished for months 
in the closest durance. 

""Warned by their officers that they must not do this thing, they deliber- 
ately organized themselves in military array — chose themselves and com- 
rades officers, relying, as they averred, upon promises of prominent citizens 
of New Orleans for a supply of arms and equipments. They named them- 
selves the Monroe Life Guard, in honor of the late mayor of New Orleans. 

" They conspired together, and arranged the manner in which they might 
force the pickets of the United States, and thus join the enemy at Corinth. 

" Tried before an impartial military commission — fully heard in their de- 
fense — these facts appeared beyond doubt or contradiction, and they were 
convicted. 

" There is no known pledge more sacred — there is no military offense 
whose punishment is better defined or more deserved. To this crime but 
one punishment has ever been assigned by any nation — Death. 

" This sentence has been approved by the commanding general. To the 
end that all others may take warning — that solemn obligations may be pre- 
served — that war may not lose all honorable ties — that clemency may rni 
De abused, and that justice be done : 
15* 



846 



EXECUTION OF MUMFOED. 



"It is ordered that Abraham McLane. Daniel Doyle, Edward C. Smith, 
Patrick Kane, George L. "Williams, and William Stanley be shot to death, 
cmdef the direction of the provost-marshal, immediately after reveille, on 
Wednesday, the 4th day of June next ; and for so doing, this shall be the 
provost-marshal's sufficient warrant." 

Here were seven men under sentence of death at the same time 
— seven human lives hanging upon the word of one man. General 
Butler is not a person of the philanthropical or humanitarian cast of 
character ; which is compatible with strange hardness of heart to- 
ward individuals. Nor is he unaware of the frightful cruelty to 
society of pardoning men justly condemned. He is abundantly 
capable of preferring the good of the many to the convenience of 
one, and turning a deaf ear to the entreaties of a criminal, when, on 
the other hand, stands a wronged community asking protection, 
or an outraged country demanding justice upon its mortal foes. 
The "fluid that courses his veins is blood, not milk and water. 
Nevertheless, he has the feelings that belong to a human being, 
and these seven forfeited lives hang heavy upon his heart. 

In the case of Mumford he had no misgivings. He was able to 
endure the harrowing spectacle of the man's wife and three chil- 
dren falling upon their knees before him, begging the life of husband ( 
and father, and yet keep firmly to a just resolve. He was able to 
resist the tears and entreaties of his own tender-hearted wife, whose 
judgment he respected, to whose judgment he often deferred. Far 
more easily was he able to defy and scorn the threatenings of an 
impious clan of gamblers and ruffians. Mumford must die. That 
was the deliberate and changeless fiat of his best judgment. 

Nor was he easily induced to alter his determination with regard 
to the six paroled prisoners. The events of the war had constantly 
deepened in his mind a sense of the general cruelty of pardons. He 
could not but think that the Union armies would not have lost a 
hundred thousand men by desertion, if, from the beginning, the just 
penalty of death had been inexorably inflicted ; no, nor one thou- 
sand ; perhaps not one hundred. He had imbibed a horror of all 
those loose, irresolute, chicken-hearted modes of proceeding, which 
have cost the country such incalculable suffering and blood. It is 
instinctive in such a man to know that, in this world, the kindest, 
as well as the wisest of all things, is the rigid observance of just 



EXECUTION OF MUMFORD. 



349 



law, the exact and prompt infliction of just penalty. So, between 
his sense of what was due to those six men, and his anxious con- 
sideration of extenuating circumstances, he lived many distracted 
days and nights. He could neither eat nor sleep. 

The pressure upon him was intense, as it always is upon men 
whose word can save lives. Every body pleaded for them. His 
own officers besieged his ears for pardon. The officers of the 
condemned besought it. Union men of the city implored it. 
And at night, when the world was shut out, there was still a 
voice to repeat the arguments of the day. The six prisoners 
were poor, simple, ignorant souls. One of them had said, when 
arraigned before the commission, that he did not understand any- 
thing about this paroling. 

" Paroling," said he, " is for officers and gentlemen : we are not 
gentlemen." 

It is probable that this remark saved the lives of them all, 
for it suggested the line of argument and the kind of consideration 
which, probably, had most to do with changing the general's re- 
solve. " We are not gentlemen," — an admission which no north- 
ern prisoner would be likely to make. At the south those words 
really have a meaning ; the poor people there feel a difference of 
rank between themselves and the lords of the plantation, and recog- 
nize a lower grade of personal obligation. A gentleman must keep 
his word ; we poor people may get away if we can. 

The earnest petition of those stanch Unionists, Mr. J. A. Rosier 
and Mr. T. J. Durant, had great weight with the general also. 

"These men," wrote they, "are justly liable to the condign 
punishment which the military law metes out to so grave and hein- 
ous an offense. But a powerful government never diminishes its 
strength by acts of clemency and mercy. No doubt, General, these 
men were partly driven by want, partly deluded, and have long 
been so ; superior minds have heretofore given them false impres- 
sions, and they have been acting under such views as have at last 
brought them to the threshold of the grave. Unknown to us, even 
from report, prior to their trial and condemnation, we see m them 
only men and brethren who have erred and are in danger. Gene- 
ral, the event has just shown that these men are unable to resist the 
force of the government, or elude its vigilance and the fidelity of 
its officers. They are subdued and powerless. Their case excites 



350 



EXECUTION OF MTIMFORD. 



our commiseration, and that of hundreds of others. We ask you 
to have mercy upon them. At the present moment the government 
needs no excessive rigor to enforce obedience or command respect. 
Pardon their offense. The act will restore them to sobriety of 
reason and to useful employment. It will fill them with gratitude 
to you and to the powerful government you represent. It will de- 
monstrate the mildness of its authority, and convince our fellow- 
citizens that mercy and clemency, no less than force and strength, 
are essential attributes of the power you represent. General, re- 
ceive this prayer for life, in the spirit which dictates it — an earnest 
and heartfelt desire to promote reconciliation and peace." 

To this letter, which was received the day before the one 
named for the execution, General Butler replied : 

" Your communication has received, as it deserved, most serious 
consideration. The representations of gentlemen of your known 
probity, intelligence, high social position, and thorough acquaint- 
ance with the character, temper, habits of thought and motives of 
action of the people of New Orleans, ought to have great and de- 
termining weight with me, a stranger among you, called upon to 
act promptly under the best light I may in matters affecting the 
administration of justice. In addition, your well-known and fully 
appreciated unswerving attachment to the government of the Uni- 
ted States, renders it certain that nothing but the best interests of 
the country could have influenced your opinion. 

" Of the justice which calls for the death of these men I can have 
no doubt. The mercy it would be to others, in like cases tempted 
to offend, to have the terrible example of the punishment to which 
these misguided men are sentenced, is the only matter left for dis- 
cussion. 

" Upon this question you who have suffered for the Union, who 
have stood by it in evil and in good report — you who have lived 
and are hereafter to hVe in this city as your home, when all are 
gathered again under the flag which has been so foully outraged, 
and to whose wrongs these men's lives are forfeit — you who, I have 
heard, exerted your talents to save the lives of Union men in tho 
hour of their peril, ought to have a determining weight when your 
Opinions have been deliberately formed. You ask for these men's 
lives. You shall have them. You say that the clemency of the gov- 
ernment is best for the cause we all have at heart Be it so. You 



EXECUTION Or MUMEORD. 351 

are likely to be better informed upon this than I am. I have no 
wish to do anything but that which will show the men of Louisi- 
ana how great a good they were tempted to throw away when 
they were led to raise their hands against the constitution and laws 
of the United States. 

" If this example of mercy is lost upon those in the same situa- 
tion, swift justice can overtake others in like manner offending." 

The men were reprieved, and consigned to Ship Island " during 
the pleasure of the president of the United States." This was on 
the fourth of June. Mumford was to die on the seventh. 

The scaffold was erected in front of the Mint, near the scene of 
his crime. To the last minute General Butler was earnestly im- 
plored to spare him. The venerable Dr. Mercer, a man of eighty 
honorable years, once the familiar friend and frequent host of Henry 
Clay, a gentleman of boundless generosity and benevolence, the 
patron of all that redeemed New Orleans, came to head-quarters an 
hour before the execution, to ask for Mumford's life. 

"Give me this man's life, General," said he, while the tears rolled 
down his aged cheeks. "It is but a, scratch of your pen." 

" True," replied the general. " But a scratch of my pen could 
burn New Orleans. I could as soon do the one act as the other. I 
think one would be as wrong as the other." 

In truth, the reprieve of the six had rendered the saving of Mum- 
ford impossible. That act of mercy, like all the rest of General 
Butler's acts in New Orleans, was utterly misinterpreted by the 
people, who attributed it to weakness and cowardice. It was, and 
is, the conviction of the, best informed officers and Union citizens 
then in New Orleans, that upon the question of hanging or sparing 
Mumford depended the final suppression or the continued turbu- 
lence of the mob of the city. Mumford hanged, the mob was sub- 
dued. Mumford spared, the mob remained to be quelled by final 
grape and canister. There was absolutely needed for the peace- 
ful government of the city, a certainty that General Butler dared 
hang a rebel. 

Mumford met his doom with the composure with which bad men 
usually die. He said that "the offense for which he was condemned 
was committed under excitement, and he did not consider he was 
suffering justly. He conjured all who heard him to act justly to all 
men ; to rear their children properly ; and when they met death 



352 



EXECUTION OF MUMEOKD. 



they would meet it firmly. He was prepared to die ; and as he 
had never wronged any one, he hoped to receive mercy." 

"The unconscious is the alone complete," says the German poet. 
It is only good people who, on the approach of death, are dis- 
mayed and ashamed at reviewing their lives — comparing what 
tnight have been with what has been. 

An immense concourse beheld the execution. The turbulent 
spirits of New Orleans drew the proper inferences from the scene. 
Every one concerned in the administration of justice in the city 
felt a certain confidence, before unfelt, in their ability to rule the 
city without violence. Every soldier felt safer ; and the friends of 
the Union had an assurance that, at length, they were really on the 
stronger side. Order reigned in Warsaw. 

The name of Mumford, if we may believe Confederate newspa- 
pers, was immediately added to the "roll" of martyrs to the cause of 
liberty. The fugitive governor of Louisiana, from some safe retreat 
up the river, fulminated a proclamation about this time, in wmich 
he commented upon the death of Mumford in the style of eloquence 
familiar to the readers of De Bow's Review — a curious mixture of 
Patrick Henry and Bedlam. 

" The loss of New Orleans," said he, " and the opening of the 
Mississippi, which will soon follow', have greatly increased our dan- 
ger, and deprived us of many resources for defense. With less 
means, we have more to do than before. Every weapon we have, 
and all that our skillful mechanics can make, will be needed. Let 
every citizen be an armed sentinel, to give warning of any approach 
of the insolent foe. Let all our river banks swarm with armed pa- 
triots, to teach the hated invader that the rifle will be his only wel- 
come on his errands of plunder and destruction. Wherever he 
dares to raise the hated emblem of tyranny, tear it down, and rend 
it in tatters. 

" The noble heroism of the patriot Mumford, has placed his name 
high on the list of our martyred sons. When rhe federal navy 
reached New Orleans, a squad of marines was sent on shore, 
who hoisted their flag on the Mint. The city was not occupied by 
the United States troops„ nor had they reached there. The place 
was not in their possession. William B. Mumford pulled down the 
detested symbol with his own hands, and for that was condemned 
to be hung by General Butler after his arrival. Brought in fulf 



EXECUTION OF MUMFORD. 



353 



view of the scaffold, his murderers hoped to appall his heroic soui, 
by the exhibition of the implements of ignominious death. With 
the evidence of their determination to consummate their brutal pur- 
pose before his eyes, they offered him life on the condition that he 
would abjure his country, and swear allegiance to her foe. He 
spurned the offer. Scorning to stain his soul with such foul dis- 
honor, he met his fate courageously, and has transmitted to his 
countrymen a fresh example of what men will do and dare when 
under the inspiration of fervid patriotism. I shall not forget the 
outrage of his murder, nor shall it pass un atoned. 

" I am not introducing any new regulations for the conduct of 
our citizens, but am only placing before them those that every 
nation at war recognizes as necessary and proper to be enforced. 
It is needless, therefore, to say that they will not be relaxed. On 
the contrary, I am but awaiting the assistance and presence of the 
general appointed to the department, to inaugurate the most effect- 
ual method for their enforcement. It is well to repeat them : 

" Trading with the enemy is prohibited under all circumstances. 

" Traveling to and from New Orleans and other places occupied 
by the enemy is forbidden. All passengers (vill be arrested. 

" Citizens going to those places, and returning with the enemy's 
usual passport, will be arrested. 

" Conscripts or militia-men, having in possession such passports, 
and seeking to shun duty, under the pretext of a parole, shall be 
treated as public enemies. No such papers will be held as sufficient 
excuse for inaction by any citizen. 

" The utmost vigilance must be used by officers and citizens in 
the detection of spies and salaried informers, and their apprehension 
promptly effected. 

" Tories must suffer the fate that every betrayer of his country 
deserves. 

" Confederate notes shall be received and used as the currency 
of the country. 

" River steamboats must, in no case, be permitted to be captured. 
Burn them when they can not be saved. 

" Provisions may be conveyed to New Orleans only in charge of 
officers, and under the precautionary regulations governing commu- 
nication between belligerents. 

" The loss of New Orleans, bitter humiliation as it was to Louisi- 



354 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 



anians, has not created despondency, nor shaken our abiding faith 
in our success. Not to the eye of the enthusiastic patriot alone, who 
might be expected to color events with his hopes, but to the more 
impassioned gaze of the statesman that success was certain from 
the beginning. It is only the timid, the unreflecting, and the prop 
rty owner, who thinks more of his possessions than his country, 
hat will succumb to the depressing influences of disaster. The 
great heart of the people has swelled with more intense aspirations 
for the cause the more it seemed to totter. Their confidence is 
well founded. The possession by the enemy of our seaboard and 
main water-courses ought to have been foreseen by us. His over- 
whelming naval force necessarily accomplished the same results 
attained by the British with the same force in their war of subjuga 
tion. The final result will be the same," etc., etc. 



CHAPTER XX. 

GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 

" Whatever else may be said of business in New Orleans," re- 
marked, the humorous Delta, " one thing is certain, consuls are 
lower." 

Consuls were very high indeed during the first few weeks of the 
occupation of the city. Their position in New Orleans had been 
one of first-rate importance during the rebellion ; for it was chiefly 
through the foreign capitalists of the city that the Confederacy 
had been supplied with arms and munitions of war, and it had 
been the congenial office of the consuls to afford them aid and pro 
tection in that lucrative business. They forgot that they were 
only consuls. They forgot the United States. Often communi- 
cating directly with the cabinet ministers of their countries, always 
flattered and made much of by the supporters of the rebellion, ex 
pecting with the most perfect confidence the triumph of secession, 
representing powers every one of which desired or counted upon 



\ 

\ 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 355 



its success, they assumed the tone of embassadors ; they courted 
the power which they assumed would finally rule in New Orleans, 
and held in contempt or aversion the one to which they were 
accredited. 

These gentlemen gave General Butler more trouble, caused him 
more hard work, than any other class in New Orleans. They 
opposed every measure of his which could be supposed to bear 
upon any man of foreign origin. Mr. Seward was overrun with 
their protests, complaints and petitions. If the secretary of the 
treasury approved the commander of the Department of the Gulf 
as the cheapest of generals, the secretary of state found him much 
the most troublesome. The correspondence relating to this single 
subject would fill two or three volumes as large as this. 

A collision between the foreign consuls and General Butler 
almost necessarily involved a difference between General Butler 
and Mr. Seward. The two men are moral antipodes. Mr. Seward 
has too little, General Butler has enough, of the spirit of warfare. 
Mr. Seward, by the constitution of his mind and the habits of 
thirty years, is a conciliator, one who shrinks from the final ordeal, 
who is reluctant to face the last consequences, skillful to postpone, 
explain away, and " make things pleasant." General Butler, on 
the contrary, rejoices in a clear issue, goes straight to the point, 
uses language that bears but one meaning, and " takes the responsi- 
bility" as naturally as he takes his breakfast. Mr. Seward so 
dreaded the approach of the war, that he was more than willing to 
make concessions which would pass the final, the inevitable con- 
flict over to the next generation. General Butler picked up the 
glove with a feeling akin to exultation, and adopted war as the 
business of the country and his own, desiring no pause till the 
controversy was settled absolutely and for ever. Mr. Seward re- 
garded the southern oligarchy as erring fellow-citizens, who could 
be won back to their allegiance. General Butler regarded them as 
traitors, utterly incapable of conversion, who could be rendered 
harmless only by being made powerless. Mr. Seward, as the head 
of the foreign department, felt that all his duties were subordinate 
to the one cardinal, central object of his policy, the maintenance 
of peace with foreign nations while the rebellion showed front. 
General Butler, always breasting the foremost wave of the rebel- 
lion, could not be very sensitive to the gentle murmurs of Mr. 



356 GENERAL BTJTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 

Seward's reception-room. The men were subject to two opposite, 
antagonistic magnetisms. General Butler was John Heenan peg- 
ging away at Sayers, thinking of nothing but getting in fair 
blows. Mr, Seward was the distressed bottle-holder who wanted 
Heenan to win, but thought Sayers too good a fellow to be 
smashed. 

Hence we find that when the foreign ministers brought their com- 
plaints to the department of state, Mr. Seward generally, and at 
once, took it for granted that General Butler was wrong. He 
could do no other way, without insincerity. The men are so es- 
sentially antagonistic, that no really characteristic act of either 
could fail to excite in the other an instinctive disapproval. 

Similar remarks apply to Mr. Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland, 
the eminent and very able lawyer who was sent by Mr. Seward 
o New Orleans to investigate the consular imbroglio. As a na- 
tive of a southern State, it was natural that he should feel a cer- 
tain degree of sympathy with the suffering people of Louisiana, 
and be disposed to take a favorable view of their side of a dispute 
with General Butler. If, in 1862, he thought secession a mistake 
and a crime, in all other particulars he was in accord with his 
southern friends. His heart and mind, his friends and habits, 
were southern. In New Orleans he associated almost exclusively 
with secessionists — who felt, who avowed, who boasted that he 
was their friend. Granting that he had the most honorable in- 
tentions (I am sure he had no other), it was not in human nature 
that he should judge justly between General Butler and the rebels 
of New Orleans. Nor can we doubt that he was sent to New 
Orleans, and knew that he was sent, to comply with the demands 
of foreign powers, if it could be done without concessions too pal- 
pably humiliating. 

Here is the point : every one knows the difference that may 
exist between a law case as presented in the law papers, and the 
known facts of the case. A merchant, for example, finds it con- 
venient to " make over" his property to a friend. The papers show 
that he has not a dollar in the world, while the fact is, that he pos- 
sesses a quarter of a million. Every one in the court may know 
the fact; yet the papers carry the day. A bank may find it 
advantageous to seem to possess no coin. Any lawyer can suggest 
a mode by which this can be done, and a judge in ordinary time* 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. ci50 

might be obliged to decide in accordance with the documents. 
What General Butler would have liked was a commissioner who 
would have sought out the hidden fact, not one who was content 
with the paper case. But Mr. Seward was chiefly concerned to 
keep the peace with foreign powers, to deprive them not merely of 
all cause of complaint, but of all pretext. Far be it from me to 
presume to say that he was wrong. " One at a time" is a good rule, 
when a nation has a war on its hands. His course may have been 
justified by necessity. 

Xt is impossible to detail here all the points of collision between 
General Butler and the foreign consuls. The more important cases 
were the following : 

Case of the British Guard. 

The British Guard consisted of fifty or sixty Englishmen, old 
residents of New Orleans, many of them men of large property 
and extensive business. On returning to their armory, late in the 
evening, after the disbanding of the Foreign Legion, they had held a 
formal meeting, at which it was voted to send their arms, accouter- 
ments, and uniforms to the camp of General Beauregard. On 
learning this, a few days after the occupation of the city, General 
Butler sent for Captain Burrows, the commander of the company, 
who confessed the fact. The general then directed him to order 
his company to leave New Orleans within twenty-four hours ; and 
declared his intention to arrest and confine in Fort Jackson any 
who should .fail to obey the order. The violation of the law of 
neutrality had been clear and indefensible. These men had enjoyed 
for many years the protection of the United States government, 
under which they acquired wealth and distinction, and then em- 
braced the first opportunity that had offered to give material aid 
to its enemies. Captain Burrows could only object that part of 
the company had been absent from the meeting, and it would be 
unfair to punish the innocent with the guilty. General Butler as- 
sented, and ordered those of the company who had not partici- 
pated in the offense, to appear before him with their arms and 
uniforms, the rest to obey the previous order. 

The acting British consul, Mr. George Coppell, hastened to inxer 



358 GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 

pose. He could not deny that the act charged against his country- 
men was a violation of the law ; but he said they had done it with "no 
idea of wrong or harm." He enlarged upon the inconvenience it 
would be to those highly respectable gentlemen to leave the city, 
where their affairs were extensive and important. In fact, it would 
not be even "possible" for some of them to leave ; and if General 
Butler should persist, it would be the duty of the consul to solemnly 
protest against the " verbal order of questionable legality, the en- 
forcement of which would infringe the rights of British subjects 
residing in New Orleans." 

The general replied by recounting the facts with the exactness of 
a lawyer. " These people," he added, " thought it of consequence 
that Beauregard should have sixty more uniforms and rifles. I 
think it of the same consequence that he should have sixty more 
of these faithless men, who may fill them if they choose. I intend 
this order to be strictly enforced. I am content for the present to 
suffer open enemies to remain in the city of their nativity ; but law- 
defying and treacherous alien enemies shall not. I welcome all 
neutrals and foreigners who have kept aloof from these troubles 
which have been brought upon the city, and will, to the extent of 
my power, protect them and their property. They shall have the 
same hospitable and just treatment they have always received at 
the hands of the United States government. They will see, how- 
ever, for themselves, that it is for the interest of all to have the un- 
worthy among them rooted out ; because the acts of such bring sus- 
picion upon all. All the facts above set forth can easily be substan- 
tiated, and indeed, are all evasively admitted in your note by the 
very apology made for them. That apology says, that - these men, 
when they took this action — sent these arms and munitions of war 
to Beauregard—' did it with no idea of wrong or harm.' I do not 
understand this. Can it be that such men, of age to enroll themselves 
as a military body, did not know that it was wrong to supply the 
enemies of the United States with arms ? If so, I think they should 
be absent from the city long enough to learn so much international 
law; or do you mean to say, knowing their social proclivities, 
and the lateness of the horn' when the vote was taken, therefore 
they were not responsible ? There is another difficulty, however, in 
those people taking any protection under the British flag. The com- 
pany received a charter or commission, o^* sctpp form of rebel au- 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 359 

thorization from the governor of Louisiana, and one of them, whom 
I have under arrest, accompanied him to the rebel camp. There is 
still another difficulty. I am informed and believe that a majority 
of them have made declarations of their intentions to become citi- 
zens of the United States, and of the supposed Confederate States, 
and have taken the proper and improper oaths of allegiance to 
effect that purpose." 

The order was executed. Every member of the company (for 
none of them could produce his arms or uniform) fled from the city, 
except the captain and one other. These two found themselves 
prisoners at Fort Jackson. Mr. Coppell related the case to Lord 
Lyon*, who laid it before Mr. Seward. The secretary of state 
admitted the illegality of the act committed by the British Guard ; 
but, in effect, recommended Captain Burrows and his friend to the 
mercy of the commanding general, and advised their release. Ac- 
cordingly, after several weeks' detention, they were set at liberty. 

General Butler, justly offended at the tone and substance of Mr. 
Coppell's remonstrance, intimated to that gentleman that, though 
he signed himself " Her Britannic Majesty's Acting Consul," he had 
exhibited no proof of his right to that honorable designation. "The 
respect," said General Butler, " which I feel for that government 
leads me to err, if at all, upon the side of recognition of your claims, 
and those of its officers ; but I take leave to call your attention to 
the fact that you subscribed yourself 'Her Britannic Majesty's Act- 
ing Consul,' and that I have received no official information of any 
right you may have so to act, except your acts alone, and pardon 
me if I err in saying, that your acts in that capacity, which have 
come to my knowledge, have not been of such character as to induce 
the belief on my part, that you rightfully represent that noble gov- 
ernment." 

It happened that Mr. Coppell could not produce the regular 
documents. As he continued to interfere with General Butler's 
measures, and that too, in the style of a resident unfriendly minister, 
the general had the pleasure of refusing to recognize him, and be 
remained without official character until he could procure frou; 
Washington the necessary proofs of his appointment. 



360 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 



Case of diaries Heidsieck. 

This individual, it appears, was the head of the great French 
house of dealers in Heidsieck champagne. He was a native and 
citizen of France, but had come to the southern states to look after 
his delinquent creditors, and had resided, for some time, at Mobile. 
He entered his name upon the books of the Dick Keys and the 
Natchez, steamboats permitted by General Butler to convey pro- 
visions to New Orleans, as bar-tender ; made five trips in that dis- 
guise, and brought to and from Mobile a very large quantity of 
letters, several of which, containing treasonable information, were 
sent to Washington by General Butler. As Heidsieck was depart- 
ing for Fort Jackson, he called on his consul for help. " I have 
the honor," he wrote, " to ask you to see what you have to do for 
me in this matter, having come and left this city under a flag of 
truce." What the consul concluded he had to do for him we shall 
see in a moment. After several months' imprisonment at Fort 
Jackson and Fort Pickens, he was released by orders from Wash- 
ington. He then forwarded to the government a memorial, in the 
French manner, asking reparation for his detention. This impu- 
dent claim from a man who had only escaped the ignominious death 
of a spy by the clemency of the government, elicited from General 
Butler an amusing narrative of the case, Which the evidence before 
me at this moment proves to be true in every particular. 

"Let us," remarks the general, "in the light of the facts, examine Heid- 
sieck's claims and pretensions. Of a very respectable social position, he 
claims to have engaged as a bar-tender on the steamer 'Dick Keys, 1 whose 
former bar-tender was conveniently sick, for the purpose and object of get- 
ting his letters from the consulate at New Orleans, and for the purpose ot 
making money by the sale of his wines on board the boat during her trips. 
Now, a bar- tender at the South is one of the most menial employments, 
and is usually, on board steamers, intrusted to a negro steward. Is it likely 
that Heidsieck, without a controlling motive, would make one voyage from 
Mobile to New Orleans in that capacity? Is not a gentleman disguised 
when he takes upon himself such an employment? Is it an answer to say, 
that his full name was on the shipping articles, and by that he was to be 
recognized when ' bar-tender' was, as he admits, affixed to it ? If we had 
found the name of 'Augustus Caesar,' which might have been the name of 
the former black bar-tender whose place Heidsieck took, upon the shipping 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 361 

articles, should we have looked for and expected to find the Roman em- 
peror ? 

"The motive for undertaking this menial occupation, as Heidsieck al- 
leges, was to get his letters from the consulate. Why not send for them ? 
If the military authorities would not let them go with his messenger, then 
he had no right to come in disguise and fetch them. But admit, for the 
sake of the argument, that his desire to get his correspondence was a suffi- 
cient motive for Heidsieck to take one such trip as bar-tender, why make 
five during a space of more than two months ? 

" To this he answers that the profits of the sales of his wines as bar-ten- 
der on board the boat, were not to be despised. But he admits that the 
boat could and did carry no passengers. To whom then was the wine to 
be sold, as he says that the boat was kept under strict surveillance. * * * 
Besides which, he admits that he spent his time between trips in the city 
of ^New Orleans. Indeed, what need of a bar-tender on board of that boat 
at all, especially one who was to be paid by the sale of wine ? Is it pos- 
sible that the crew of a small steamboat at the South drink enough of even 
so poor a wine as 'Heidsieck's champagne,' as to make it profitable for a 
gentleman to spend his time selling it as a menial ? Again, if the bar-ten- 
der of the steamer ; Dick Keys' was sick, and the captain was willing to 
make such a bargain for such a bar- tender, how is it that when the ' Dick 
Keys' went out of the employment of carrying flour between Mobile and 
New Orleans, that the ' Natchez' which was employed in her stead, should 
also have a sick bar-tender and a captain who should be willing to make so 
remarkable a contract, as to give passage, board, and lodging where the 
cost of living was extremely heavy, to gentlemen to sell liquor to his own 
crew, as he could have no other customers ? Still farther, after these boats 
were stopped by the United States authorities, because of the corrupt in- 
telligence conveyed by them, Heidsieck was again found going to New Or- 
leans, under the pretense of carrying dispatches to the French consu. 
there, he having no business whatever in the city. Why not send the dis- 
patches by Mr. Greenwood, the city agent ? He was kind enough to take 
Heidsieck, dispatches and all, upon his schooner gratis ; would he not have 
taken the dispatches alone? 

" The facts with regard to Heidsieck may be stated in a word. I learned 
that intelligence was being conveyed to New Orleans and Mobile for the 
rebels. I believed the city agent to be trustworthy. There was no chan- 
nel except the employes of the boat, no passengers being allowed. I 
caused an inquiry to be made, and found Heidsieck on board in disguise, 
and that he spent all his time, between trips, in this city. Before I had 
the facts reported to me, he had gone to Mobile with the last trip of the 
steamer. It may be assumed I was glad to see him, when he returned, in 
his true character of 'bearer of dispatches.' I arrested him as a spy — J 



362 GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSUXS. 



confined him as a spy — I should have tried him as a spy, and hanged him 
upon conviction as a spy, if I had not been interfered with by the govern- 
ment at Washington. 

" He had, when arrested, a canvas wrapper, of the size of a peck measure, 
firmly bound up with cords, covering letters from the French, Swiss, Span- 
ish, Prussian, and Belgian consuls, also a great number of letters to private 
persons, mostly rebels, or worse, intermeddling foreigners, containing con- 
traband intelligence. A portion of these letters were forwarded to the 
honorable secretary of state, in December last, by me. To show the utter 
falsity of Heidsieck's narrative, let me advert to his statement, that he stole 
away a paper which, he says, ' I recognized as the envelope of my dis- 
patches; the envelope, by the folds, to which the remnant of the seals 
still adhered, which could alone give to M. De Mejan the correct idea of 
the bulk of the dispatches.' It will be recollected that it has already been 
stated by me that the letters were inclosed in a canvas wrapper, tied up 
with cord, which Heidsieck, in his memorial, represents me as being en- 
gaged for some minutes in 'cutting and breaking.' How then could any 
paper show the size of the package ? I sent Heidsieck to Fort Jackson, 
which was, at that time, the only military prison in my department, ana 
where confinements were usually made. Immediately after his arrest, the 
French consul notified me that he had referred the matter to his minister 
at Washington, and I accordingly sent my dispatch to the secretary of 
state, and rested in taking measures for the trial until I received instruc- 
tions from the government. 

" A number of French residents of New Orleans, however, petitioned 
me as an act of grace to release Heidsieck, and allow him to go to Europe, 
to remain during the war. I finally consented, and gave orders for his 
release upon that condition, as an act of clemency. For this order his 
friends were very grateful, and so expressed themselves both by letter and 
in person. This parole was declined by Heidsieck, although I supposed 
the application had been made by his consent and his procurement. Per- 
haps, however, this refusal may be explained by the fact stated in his me- 
morial, that the French consul, two days afterward, started for Washington 
' on my account.' 

" It will be seen, in all points, Heidsieck claims that all suspicion should 
be diverted from himself as to his neutrality, because he was acting in con- 
cert with the Count Mejan, the French consul at New Orleans ; but it will 
iiot escape recollection that M. Mejan's own propriety of conduct and neu 
crality has, by subsequent revelations, been shown to have been worse than 
doubtful — the repository of almost a half million of specie loaned by the 
Bank of New Orleans to the Confederate government, for the purpose of 
purchasing army clothing, and receiving a commission for his agency. 
Count Mejan has been, very properly, recalled by his government, and can 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. it63 

jardly, by his character, cover the suspected acts of Heidsieck traveling 
between rebel cities in the guise of a bar-tender. 

" Heidsieck was removed, with the other prisoners, to Fort Pickens, in 
August, because I was informed of a threatened attack by the rebels upon 
Fort Jackson, and I did not deem it proper that prisoners should either be 
exposed to the hazard of combat, or embarrass the defenders of the fort by 
their presence. 

" Heidsieck's complaint as to his treatment during his confinement must 
be unfounded, because there was never any restriction, save in the matter 
of intoxicating liquors, upon prisoners and their friends furnishing any 
and everything desired by them for comfort or convenience ; and his own 
memorial does not claim that any representations by him, or any other 
prisoner, were ever made to me on the subject, as indeed there were not. 

" His complaint, that he was obliged to ' cook for his own mess,' will 
hardly excite much sympathy. I am unable to see the hardship to one who 
has, by his own confession, turned bar-keeper for a living, cooking his own 
food. 

" His complaint that he could not write to his wife, because the officer, 
admitted by him to be 'a perfect gentleman,' who was to examine his let- 
ter, was too young to be trusted with the delicate revelations of a husband 
to his wife, who was three thousand miles away, is too absurd for com- 
ment. 

" I received the order from the commanding general of the army, to re- 
lease Heidsieck upon his giving his parole not to visit the Confederate States, 
which was transmitted in the usual course of business, and he accepted the 
condition, which only differed from the one offered by me in this, that by 
mine he was to go to Europe. 

"He now desires reparation for his confinement. Let Heidsieck be or- 
dered back into confinement ; let a court-martial of impartial officers at 
ifew Orleans be ordered to try him as a spy, with a competent judge advo- 
cate ; and if he is acquitted, I pledge myself to the extent of my private 
means, to make good to him all he has suffered, provided his government 
will agree, that if found guilty, he shall be hanged, as he ought to be, with 
out any intervention on its part. 

" If Heidsieck had not been taken out of my hands by the action of my 
government, I should have ordered him before a court for trial, and I be- 
lieve he would have suffered for his crimes against the country that had 
given him the protection of its laws." 

So much for Charles Heidsieck, bar-tender and dealer in cham- 
pagne. We come now to an affair that made more noise in the 
world. 

16 



364 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 



Seizure of $800,000 in Silver. 

To justify the seizure of this mass of coin, it is not necessary to 
prove that it constituted part of the cash capital of the Confederate 
government, or that it was secreted for the purpose of defrauding 
the creditors of the Citizens' Bank, from the vaults of which it was 
so suddenly removed before the occupation of the city. It is only 
necessary to show that there existed strong grounds of suspicion 
with regard to it. The silver was not confiscated, it was merely 
seized and held for adjudication. The rebel government, at the 
beginning of the war, had not been content merely to seize and 
hold the coin in the mint and sub-treasury of the United States ; 
but had appropriated the same to its own purposes. The subjects 
of that government had not merely postponed the payment of the 
two or three hundred millions which they owed northern mer- 
chants and manufacturers ; but had first repudiated the debts, and 
then proceeded to place it for ever beyond their power to pay them ; 
to say nothing of the universal confiscation of property in the South 
which belonged to northern men. This silver, on the contrary, 
was seized and detained, merely that the extremely suspicious cir- 
cumstances of its concealment might be investigated. 

Let me remark, first, that the mysterious transfer of the silver, 
m the quiet of a Sunday morning, from the Citizens' Bank to the 
Dutch consulate, was condemned, at the time of the transfer, by 
the True Delta, a secession paper; and condemned on grounds 
shown, in 1863, to be just. " If we are correctly informed," said the 
True Delta of April 26th, "the coin which has taken wings from 
the Citizens' Bank is transferred to Dutch hands to discharge in- 
debtedness in Holland not yet for some time due, and for which the 
bank advancing the specie is no more responsible than is any other 
living institution in this place. Were it otherwise, however, were 
the debt its own, we can not see the propriety at a time like this, 
to deplete its vaults to anticipate a debt, or to pay a foreign cred- 
itor preferentially." It thus appears that the transaction, though 
imperfectly understood, made upon the honest mind of John Ma- 
ginnis, editor of the True Delta, precisely ttu same impression that 
it made upon General Butler. 

A few days pfter the landing of the t oops, a negro informed 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 



365 



Lieutenant Kinsman that an immense number of kegs of silver had 
been taken to the store of a Frenchman named Conturie, a liquor 
dealer, and secreted in a large yault; in testimony whereof the 
negro produced a Bible in which he had made some hieroglyphic 
entry of the fact, with a view to its being communicated to the 
Union general when he should arrive. Farther inquiry substantia- 
ting the negro's story, General Butler sent Captain Shipley of the 
Thirtieth Massachusetts, with a file of six or eight soldiers, to ex- 
amine the office of M. Conturie, who proved to be the consul of the 
Netherlands. At two in the afternoon of May 10th, Captain Shipley 
presented himself at the consulate. It appeared to be an insurance 
office, though the consular flag of the Netherlands was flying over 
the door. M. Conturie was found, and Captain Shipley, with 
marked courtesy, informed him of the object of his visit, adding, 
that he was ordered to prevent the departure of person or property 
from the building. M. Conturie, with needless vehemence, and in 
a style that savored of the dramatic, said : 

" I am the consul of the Netherlands. This is the office of my 
consulate. I protest against any such violation of it." 

He solemnly declared, and many times declared, that the part of 
the building occupied by him contained nothing but the property 
belonging or appertaining to the consulate, or to himself as an 
individual. He positively refused to allow the vault or the office 
to be searched. After some farther conversation with Captain 
Shipley, he wrote a note to the Count Mejan, consul-general of 
France, which he requested might be sent to that personage, as he 
wished to consult with him. Very naturally ; for the Count Mejan 
was more deeply involved in the secretion of coin than M. Conturie. 
Captain Shipley promised to send the note to the French consul, 
provided it was approved at head-quarters. To head-quarters he 
accordingly repaired, leaving Conturie a prisoner in his consulate. 

The general decided that M. Conturie's note should not be for- 
warded to the French consul, whom the affair did in no way con- 
cern. Captain Shipley reappeared at the Dutch consulate, com- 
municated his intention to search the premises, and demanded of 
Conturie the key of his vault. The consul refused to deliver it. 

u Then I shall be obliged to force the door," said the captain. 

" With regard to that, you will do as you please," said Conturie, 
who again protested against the violation of his office and flag. 



366 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 



As Captain Shipley had not the means of forcing the vault, he 
was again compelled to return to head-quarters. As he turned to 
go, the consul said : 

" Sir, am I to understand that my consular office is taken pos- 
session of, and myself am arrested by you ; and that, too, by order 
of Major-General Butler ?" 

" Yes, sir," replied Captain Shipley. 

General Butler, upon receiving the captain's report, sent him 
back to the consulate, accompanied by Lieutenant Kinsman, of his 
staff, an officer peculiarly well fitted for extracting a key from a 
contumacious consul — a gentleman perfectly capable of the suaviter 
in modo, but equally versed in the fortiter in re. To the consul, 
Lieutenant Kinsman politely said : 

" Sir, I wish to look into your vault ?" 

The consul replied : " It contains only my private effects, and 
the property of the consulate." 

Lieutenant Kinsman : " Sir, I wish to look into your vault. 
Give me the key." 

Mr. Conturie : " I will not." 

Lieutenant Kinsman to officers : " Search the office. Break 
open, if need be, the doors of the vault." 

Mr. Conturie, rising : " I, Amedie Conturie, Consul of the Nether- 
lands, protest against any occupation or search of my office ; and 
this I do in the name of my government. The name of my consu- 
late is over the door, and my flag floats over my head. If I cede, 
it is to force alone." 

The search began. Conturie then said, it would be of no use to 
search the office, for the key of the vault was upon his own person. 

Lieutenant Kinsman to officers : " Search this man." 

Captain Shipley and Lieutenant Whitcomb, approached " this man" 
to obey the order. 

Lieutenant Kinsman : " Search the fellow thoroughly. Strip 
him. Take off his coat, his stockings. Search even the soles of 
his shoes." 

M. Conturie : " You call me fellow ! That word is never applied 
to a gentleman, far less to a foreign consul, acting in his consular 
capacity, as I am now. I ask you to remember that you used that 
word." 

Lieutenant Kinsman: "Certainly; fellow is the name I applied 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 



367 



to you. I don't care, if you are the consul of Jerusalem ; I am 
going to look into your vault." 

One of the officers took a key from the coat-pocket of the consul, 
which proved not to be the one required. Conturie then made a 
slight movement, which plainly said, that the pocket to look into, 
was a certain one in his pantaloons. The silent hint was taken. 
The key was found. The vault was opened; and, lo! a cord and 
a half of kegs of silver coin, marked "Hope & Co." The kegs 
were one hundred and sixty in number, each containing five thou- 
sand Mexican dollars. Many other articles were found in ti*e 
vault — tin boxes, containing bonds of the cities of New Orleans 
and Mobile, the consul's exequatur and other papers belonging to 
him. Certain dies, bank-plates, and engraving tools of the Citizens' 
Bank, were also discovered. A subsequent search brought to light 
piates of the Confederate treasury notes, and some of the paper 
upon which the notes were usually printed. Such were the articles 
which the veracious Conturie declared were the property of his con- 
sulate and of himself. 

The consul was released early in the evening. The next day, the 
silver, three wagon loads, and all the other articles found in the 
vault, were removed to the Mint, and the office was vacated by 
the troops. The Confederate plates were forwarded to Washing- 
ton, where they now are ; the rest of the property was held, subject 
to the disposal of the government. 

M. Conturie immediately drew up a narrative of what had oc 
curred, suppressing his declarations, so emphatic, so oft repeated, 
that the vault contained nothing but his own and consular prop- 
erty, and complaining bitterly of Lieutenant Kinsman's strong 
language and stronger measures. This he sent to General Butler, 
who thus replied : 

" Your communication of the 10th instant is received. The 
nature of the property found concealed beneath your consular 
flag — the specie, dies, and plates of the Citizens' Bank of New 
Orleans — under a claim that it was private property, which claim 
is now admitted to be groundless, shows you have merited, so 
far' as I can judge, the treatment you have received, even if a 
little rough. Having prostituted your flag to a base purpose, you 
could not hope to have it respected so debased." 

May 12th. — Every consul in New Orleans, except the Mexican, to 



368 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 



the number of nineteen, joined in protesting against " the indig- 
nity," " the severe ill-usage," and the " imprisonment for several 
hours," to which the sacred person of M. Conturie had been sub- 
jected. 
General Butler replied : 

" Messrs. : I have the protest which you have thought it proper 
to make in regard to the action of my officers toward the consul of 
the Netherlands, which action I approve and sustain. I am grieved 
thfa without investigation o'f the facts, you, Messrs., should have 



<£ought it your duty to take action in the matter. The fact will 
'appear to be, and easily to be demonstrated at the proper time, 
that the flag of the Netherlands was made to cover and conceal 
property of an incorporated company of Louisiana, secreted under 
it from the operation of the laws of the United States. That the 
supposed fact that the consul had under the flag only the property 
of Hope & Co., citizens of the Netherlands, is untrue. He had 
other property which could not by law be his property, or the 
property of Hope & Co. ; of this T have abundant proof in my own 
hands. No person can excel me in the respect which I shall pay to 
the flags of all nations, and to the consulate authority, even while 
[ do not recognize many claims made under them; but I wish it 
most distinctly understood that, in order to be respected, the con- 
sul, his office, and the use of his flag, must each and all be respect 



M. Conturie's next step was, of course, to submit tbe case to 
Mr. Van Limburg, the minister of the Netherlands at Washington, 
who, in turn, laid it before Mr. Seward, with all the exaggerations 
of Conturie's own narrative. Mr. Yan Limburg is a very respect- 
able and most learned gentleman. It is pleasing to notice with 
what joyful alacrity he embraced the opportunity of writing long 
and erudite dispatches, such as has rarely fallen to the lot of a 
minister of the Netherlands residing at Washington. The ponder- 
ous dispatches with which this worthy gentleman kept Mr. Seward 
busy during the summer of 1862, are they not attached to the 
president's message, from page 625 to page 652 ? They are there, 
with all their Latin quotations considerately translated. " Justicia, 
regnorum fundamentum (justice is the foundation of kingdoms)." 
To describe these dispatches it is only necessary to say, that they 
are precisely such as Dominie Samson would have written, had he 



able." 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 369 

been minister of the Netherlands in the year 1862, at the city of 
Washington. 

Mr. Seward, in reply to Mr. Van Limburg's first dispatch, said, 
that he thought the consul had done wrong, but not so wrong as 
to justify the roughness of Lieutenant Kinsman. " It appears," 
said the secretary of state, " beyond dispute, that the person of the 
consul was unnecessarily and rudely searched ; that certain papers, 
which incontestably were archives of the consulate, were seized 
and removed, and that they are still withheld from him; and that 
he was not only denied the privilege of conferring with a friendly 
colleague, but was addressed in very discourteous and disrespectful 
language. In these proceedings the military agents assumed func- 
tions which belonged exclusively to the department of state, acting 
under the direction of the president. Their conduct was a violation 
of the law of nations, and of the comity due from this country to a 
friendly foreign state. The government disapproves of these pro- 
ceedings, and also the sanction which was given to them by Major- 
General Butler, and expresses its regret that the misconduct thus 
censured has occurred." 

This is a curious passage. It appears to say, that only the sec- 
retary of state, acting under the authority of the president, has the 
right to put his hand into a consul's pocket, and take out a key. 
Lieutenant Kinsman, one day in Washington, asked Mr. Seward 
what was the next thing to do after Conturie refused to give 
up the key ? The secretary did not answer the question. It cer- 
tainly was a puzzler. 

Mr. Seward farther informed Mr. Van Limburg, that the president 
had appointed a military governor of Louisiana, General Shepley, 
" who has been instructed to pay due respect to all consular rights 
and privileges, and a commissioner will at once proceed to New 
Orleans to investigate the transaction which has been detailed, and 
take evidence concerning the title of the specie, and bonds, and 
other property in question, with a view to a disposition of the same, 
according to international law and justice. You are invited to 
designate any proper person to join such commissioner, and attend 
his investigations. This government holds itself responsible for 
the money and the bonds in question, to deliver them up to the 
consul, or to Hope & Co., if they shall appear to belong to them. 
The consular commission and exequatur, together with all the pri- 



370 GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 

vate papers, will be immediately returned to M. Conturie, and he 
will be allowed to resimie, and, for the present, exercise his official 
functions. Should the facts, when ascertained, justify a represent- 
ation to you of misconduct on his part, it will in due time be made, 
with the confidence that the subject will receive just consideration 
by a government with which the United States have lived in amity 
for so many years." 

Mr. Van Limburg declined joining in the investigation. The 
United States, he said, must investigate the actions of its servants. 
For him to take part in it, would be to acknowledge that General 
Butler's conduct was possibly right. Besides, no seals had been 
placed upon the kegs and boxes, and these contained the very evi- 
dence of the consul's innocence. " It is for Major-General Butler 
to prove what he alleges. JEi incumbit probatio qui dicit,non qui 
negat (the burden of the proof lies upon him who asserts, not upon 
him who denies), says the Pandects. It is not for me, it is not for 
our consul, to prove that he is innocent. Prima facie the money 
delivered by the ' Citizen's Bank' to the agent of the house of 
Hope & Co., to be transmitted to that house, or to be deposited 
with the consul of the Netherlands, is a legitimate monev leo-iti 
mately transferred. I could not, without having received the 
orders of the government of the king, participate in any manner in 
an investigation which would tend to investigate that which I could 
not put in doubt — the good faith of the agent of the house of 
Hope & Co., the moral impossibility that that honorable house 
should lend itself to any culpable underplot, the good faith of the 
consul of the Netherlands. Quilibet praisumiter justus donee 
probitur contrarium (every one is to be presumed honest until the 
contrary is proven), saith the ancient universal rule of justice." 
If any charge is made against the consul, we will investigate that. 
And if General Butler is guilty of the acts charged by Conturie, 
we expect his — in fact — removal. Meantime, what is the status of 
M. Conturie ? Is he consul, or is he not ? 

Mr. Seward had informed the minister, that M. Conturie would 
be " allowed" to resume his functions at once, before the affair had 
been investigated. The minister demanded that he should be 
" invited? to do so. Mr. Seward replied : " I have no objection to 
your writing to the consul that it is the president's expectation 
that ho will resume and continue in the discharge of his official 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. . 371 

functions imtil there shall be farther occasion for him to relinquish 
them." The minister rejoined : — " I regret, sir, not to be able to 
accept that formula without submitting it to the judgment of the 
government of the king." The minister more than carried his 
point ; for we find Mr. Seward writing to him, soon after, that, 
"simultaneously with the appointment of Mr. Johnson as commis- 
^o^er,, Major-General Butler was relieved of his functions as military 
governor of New Orleans, and Brigadier-General Shepley was ap- 
pointed military governor of that city ; the military authorities 
were at the same time directed to invite M. Conturie to resume 
his consular functions." 

True, the appointment of a military governor was a mere diplo- 
matic fiction, which did not in the slightest degree affect General 
Butler's position or power. In the view of the world, however, he 
was both censured and degraded ; and that too, upon the extrava- 
gant, unsupported testimony of a foreign consul, whose conduct 
the secretary of state himself had censured. The public was not 
informed, as General Butler was informed by a member of the 
cabinet, that General Shepley was selected for the military gover- 
norship, because he was supposed to be the most acceptable officer 
to General Butler, who had already made him the military gover- 
nor of the city. 

To those who believe that the first duty of a government is to 
stand by its faithful servants, this mode of " backing" General But- 
ler in his difficult position, will not commend itself. Whether Gen- 
eral Butler's course had been right or wrong, was a question upon 
which there could have been two opinions ; and Mr. Reverdy 
Johnson was sent to New Orleans to ascertain which of those 
opinions was correct. There could be but one opinion respecting 
the conduct of the consul of the Netherlands, who had lent the pro- 
tection of his flag to property designed to support the credit of 
the armed foes of the power to which he was accredited. I can 
not conceive what there was in the position of the Dutch minister, 
or of the power he represented, to justify this unquestioning haste 
to concede everything which they thought proper to demand. 

The commissioner selected to go to New Orleans, and investi- 
gate the consular imbroglio, arrived early in June, and was ready 
to begin his inquiries on the tenth. General Butler received Mr. 
Johnson with every courtesy, invited him to reside at head-quarters, 
16* 



372 GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 

and did all that in him lay to facilitate his investigations. Mr, 
Johnson was equally polite, though he declined the general's invita. 
tion with regard to his residence. He spent six weeks in investi- 
gating the several cases of collision, between General Butler and 
•Jhe consuls. 

It appeared that on the 24th of February, 1862, the Citizens' 
Bank of New Orleans had conceived the idea of suddenly getting 
rid of a great part of its coin. With regard to the eight hundred 
thousand dollars deposited in the vault of M. Conturie, the follow- 
ing resolutions were shown to Mr. Johnson on the books of the 
bank : 

" Whereas, the present rate of exchange on Europe would entail a ruinous 
loss in this bank for such sums as are due semi-annually in Amsterdam for 
the interest on the state bonds. 

"Be it therefore resolved, That the President be and is hereby authorized 
to make a special deposit of eight hundred thousand dollars ($800,000) in 
Mexican dollars in the hands of Messrs. Hope & Co., of Amsterdam, Holland, 
agents of the bond-holders in Europe, through their authorized agent, Ed- 
mund J. Forstall, Esq., for the purpose of providing for the interest on said 
bonds. 

"Be it further resolved, That such portions of the above sum as may be re- 
q7iired from time to time to pay the interest accruing on the state bonds 
shall be so applied by Messrs. Hope & Co., provided, however, that the bank 
shall have the option of redeeming an equivalent amount in coin by approved 
sterling exchange to the satisfaction of the agents of Messrs. Hope & Co. ; 
and provided farther, that in the event of the blockade of this port not be- 
ing raised in time to allow of the shipment of the said coin, then the said 
Edmund J. Forstall will arrange with Messrs. Hope & Co. for the necessa- 
ry advances to protect the credit of the state and of the bank until such 
time as the coin can go forward to liquidate said debt ; but no commission 
shall be allowed for such shipment of coin or any other expenses, except 
those actually incurred ; and on the resumption of specie payment by this 
oank this trust to cease and the balance of coin to be returned to the bank." 

The papers farther showed, that on the 12th of April, the agent 
of Messrs. Hope & Co., " with a view to their better security in 
such times of excitement, deemed it his duty to withdraw the said 
sum of eight hundred thousand dollars, already marked and pre- 
pared for shipment, say, one hundred and sixty kegs, Hope & Co., 
containing five thousand dollars each, and to place the same under 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 



373 



the protection of the consul of the Netherlands, Amadie Conturie, 
Esq., for which he held his receipt." 

It also appeared, that two days after the removal of this large 
sum, the bank sold other coin amounting to seven hundred and six- 
teen thousand one hundred and ninety-six dollars, to the French bank- 
ers, Messrs. Dupasseur & Co., which they paid for in drafts upon • 
bankers in Paris and Havre. This coin was deposited in the French 
consulate, where it was seized by General Butler, and where, for 
the moment, we will leave it. 

Now, what did these strange transactions mean ? The paper case 
was plain enough, and Mr. Johnson thought it his duty to decide ac- 
cording to the papers, and give up all the coin, and all the articles 
found with it, except the plates of the Confederate treasury notes. 
But the decision, though it satisfied the secretary of state, does not 
even appease the curiosity of a disinterested reader. Surely there 
was ground for suspicion here. The attempted transfer of so large 
an amount of coin to Europe, from the chief city of the rebel gov- 
ernment, at a time when all legitimate commerce had ceased, was 
certainly a matter demanding the attention of the commanding 
general. 

Mr. Forstall, the New Orleans agent of Hope & Co., in a letter 
to that eminent house, written three days after the seizure of the 
coin, gives a history of the affair : 

"New Okleans, May 13, 1862. 
" Gentlemen : — On 1st March last T wrote Messrs. Baring Brothers & Co. 
as follows : 

" ' Should there be a necessity, I shall place under the protection of the 
respective consuls all bonds and papers belonging to you, Messrs. Hope & 
Co., and other friends. I shall try and protect the cash assets of the two 
banks whose capitals have been furnished by Europe.' 

" The great apprehension at that time, in the event of the fall of New 
Orleans, was not the action of the federal government, which, until theu. 
on similar events, had left private property undisturbed, but the destruction 
of property and sacking of the banks by the rabble out of a mixed popula- 
tion of nearly two hundred thousand, pending the consequent delays of an 
abrupt and violent change of government; and the event proved that such 
apprehension was not idle, for after the destruction and robbery of an im- 
mense amount of property on our wharves and some of our front stores 
and warehouses, a general plunder of the city would have taken place by 



i 



374 GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 

the rabble after the retreat of the Confederate troops, but for the armed 
interference, night and day, of the French and foreign brigades for nearly 
six days, when the federal troops took charge of the city with a sufficient 
force to maintain order. 

" The position of the Citizens' Bank on the 24th February last, as per 
inclosed report of the board of currency, was as follows : 



CASH EESPONSIBILITIES. 

"Circulation, $2,084,380 



"Individual deposits, returnable in gold to depositors up to 
September 16, 1861, when the banks were ordered by the 
government of the Confederacy to suspend specie payment, 

say about 1,200,000 

"Deposits in Confederate notes, and returnable in Confeder- 
ates on hand 4,354,755 

" Total $5,554,755 



CASH ASSETS. 

" Gold and silver $4,025,932 



" The bond-holders you represent yet hold bonds of the Citizens' Bank for 
$4,430,666.66. Deeply impressed with the danger threatening New Or- 
leans after the fall of the Tennessee forts, and of the disastrous consequen- 
ces that might follow its capture, with so heavy an amount of gold and 
silver centering in the vaults of our banks, and a rabble which for a time, 
however short, might be uncontrollable, and considering the interest of 
your bond-holders in as much danger as that of the stockholders, I deemed 
it my duty to call upon Mr. Denegre, so far baok as the middle of February 
last, urging him to prepare for the worst, and then used every exertion to 
induce the president to dispose of his coin at once in the following manner, 
to wit : 

" 1st. To pay in full the circulation of the bank, amounting on 
24th February last to about 

"2d. To pay the depositors up to the 16th September last, 
when the bank suspended specie payment, and who had left 
their deposits, which Mr. Denegre said would require about 

$3,284,380 



$2,084,380 
1.200,000 



" This would have reduced the cash assets of the bank to about $800,000 
in silver, without any responsibility save to the holders of the bonds, which, 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 



375 



as things have turned out, would have been a most enviable position, with 
its large and well-protected ' portefeuille,' including a very large surplus, 
and its valuable banking privileges unimpaired, ready for active operations 
on the reopening of trade. Unfortunately, this course did not meet with 
the views of Mr. Denegre, but finding that he had coin on hand to meet 
the circulation and deposits of the bank, and a surplus of about $800,000 
in silver, he proposed to place in my hands, on your account, for the pur- 
pose of meeting the interest on the bonds as maturing, the said sum of 
$800,000, which, he said, would otherwise remain dormant until a resump- 
tion of business, whilst, so used, it would sustain the credit of the bank in 
Europe, by showing that, even if the war lasted another year, and under 
all the difficulties of the present times, it had the means of paying the in- 
terest on its bonds as maturing, and had provided for the same in kind. 
Of course, consultation with you was out of the question, and I had to re- 
fer to your power of attorney, at the time when you considered the interest 
of the bond-holders you represent jeoparded, to guide me in the present 
instance ; and, after mature consideration, I came to the conclusion that 
it was my duty to accept the deposit in your behalf, tendered by the Citi- 
zens' Bank, as advised in my letter of the 1st April last, copy of which is 
inclosed. 

" And now allow me to refer you to the inclosed copy of a letter which I 
addressed Major-General Butler on the 11th instant, and which was handed 
him personally by my friend, Bendal Hunt, Esq., at 10 o'clock a. m. It 
contained a plain statement of facts, and a demand for the $800,000 forci- 
bly taken from the vaults of the consul of the Netherlands. I have no 
answer as yet, and I may be arrested at any moment, as he said he could 
see fraud in every part of the document. We continue under the rule of 
martial law. 

" It may be well to remark here that when M. Conturie learned that the 
French consul could not accommodate him, he hired the old vaults of the 
Orleans Bank, on Canal street, and the same square as the Citizens' Bank, 
the front being occupied by an insurance company, whose president used 
the front vault for his papers and books. "When the money was brought, 
Mr. Denegre, who was laboring under the idea of a run upon the banks by 
the rabble, having received an anonymous letter to that effect, fancying, it 
appears, that the best hiding-place for the steel-plates of the bank wa ? 
those same vaults, sent them there, attaching no other importance to this 
matter than that of protecting these plates, which, had they fallen in bad 
hands, might have given a good deal of trouble to the bank and public, and 
caused heavy losses. These plates, for $5 and $10, I believe, engraved and 
prepared before the secession, are in accordance with the charter of the 
Citizens' Bank and under the authority of the state of Louisiana. This is 
the property, I understand, alluded to by General Butler in his answer to 



376 



GENE-RAL JBUTLEU AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 



the protest of the foreign consuls, and which no consul should have cover- 
ed. Beally and truly, I do not believe M. Conturie knew anything about 
it. As for my part, I did not. In the whole of this matter M. Conturie 
nas shown all the energy and dignity that could be desired from the repre- 
sentative of a nation. I am, respectfully, 

"EDM. J. FOKSTALL. 

" Messrs. Hope & Co., Amsterdam." 

It thus appears that the solicitude professed by the bank for 
the interests of Hope & Co., was not shared by the agent of Hope 
<& Co., who strongly advised another disposition of the silver, and 
accepted it with reluctance and doubt. It also appears that the 
office claimed by Conturie as the consulate of the Netherlands, ^as 
nothing but a vault, hired by him for the sole purpose of hiding the 
coin. Mr. Forstall's letter farther shows, that the explanation of 
the transfer of the coin, which Mr. Johnson read upon the books 
of the bank, was a fiction. 

I believe this is all the light I am able to throw upon the trans- 
action. One more fact, however, should be stated. It was not 
true, as the True Delta intimated, that the Citizens' Bank had no 
particular interest in sustaining the credit of the state bonds. 
Those bonds bore the indorsement of the bank, and constituted the 
basis of its capital. The explanation given by the editor of the 
True Delta, of the transfer of the coin, may, however, be the correct 
one. The Citizens' Bank, probably, deemed it more important to 
have a powerful friend in Europe than to secure its creditors at 
home. If this is the true view, then justice and patriotism appear 
to have required that the silver should have been replaced in the 
vault of the bank, not restored to the agent of Hope & Co. The 
money having been consigned to Europe, the bank has since gone 
into liquidation. 

In the same spirit, Mr. Johnson decided upon the coin deposit- 
ed with the French consul by the same bank. 

"The bank," he says in his report, " in addition to the deposit of $800,000 
with the agent of Messrs. Hope & Co., needed other credits in Europe. 
Their principal business was the dealing in foreign exchange, and, to enable 
them to do this, it was necessary to have a large credit abroad. To effect 
this object they made this negotiation with Messrs. Dupasseur & Co., known 
to be perfectly responsible merchants of New Orleans, to wit : to purchase 
from them bills at certain rates on Paris for the amount of $716,196, and 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 



377 



to pay for the same in coin. The bills were not to be accepted nntil the 
drawees were advised of the shipment of the coin by Dupasseur & Co. 
The bills were drawn, delivered to the bank, and the coin handed over to 
Count Mejan, the French consul, to be retained until shipped. They were 
remitted by the bank to their correspondents abroad for acceptance, but 
have not been accepted because the coin has not been sent on. 

" Things remained in this condition when Major-General Butler requested 
the consul to retain the coin, which he has ever since done. 

" On these facts the only question is, have the United States a right to 
the fund? That the transaction was one of perfect good faith is evident 
from the depositions referred to. It was a mere business matter, in which 
the parties had a clear right to engage. That the bank at the time owned 
the coin was not denied. Nor was it questioned that the agreement was 
entered into and was being carried out when the major-general intervened. 
The United States can have no interest in the coin, except npon the ground 
of forfeiture, and for that there was not at the time, nor is there now, the 
slightest pretense. If it be alleged, as a matter of suspicion (the proof is 
all the other way), that the purpose of the bank was to place so much of 
its funds beyond the control of the United States, that, if true, would be no 
cause of forfeiture, there being no law, state or congressional, to prohibit 
it. If it be alleged, that the purpose was to place the fund in Europe for 
the advantage of the rebels, the answer is, there is not only no proof of the 
fact, but the proof actually before me wholly conflicts with it." 

This is Mr. Johnson's explanation of a transaction which, to in- 
experienced minds, certainly wears the appearance of being ficti- 
tious, or worse. Perhaps some light may be thrown upon it by 
the relation of a later affair in which the consul of France was en- 
gaged. 

Detection and Removal of the French Consul. 

In September, 1862, Mr. Sandford, our minister at Brussels, 
wrote home that the Confederate agents in Europe were seriously 
embarrassed by the non-arrival of a large amount of coin from New 
Orleans. Notes had been renewed; purveyors of cloth could not 
be paid ; and Confederate affairs generally were at a dead lock. 
" But," he added, " assurances are now given that the money is in 
the hands of the French consul, and would be shortly received." 

A copy of this interesting letter was forwarded to General But- 
ler, with directions to investigate. General Butler has a knack at 
investigating, and he performed this pleasing duty with an energy, 



378 GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 

skill, promptitude, and success rarely equaled. His report upon 
the subject was so irresistibly conclusive, that the French govern- 
ment felt compelled to recall a too assiduous, an imprudently faith- 
ful servant. I can not do the reader a better service than by trans- 
cribing this report. The supporting documents must necessarily 
be omitted, but to show their nature, I retain General Butler's refer- 
ences to them. 

" Head-quaetees, Depaetment of the Gtjlf, 
" New Oeleans, Mv. 13, 1862. 
''To Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War: 

"Sie: — I received the communication of the war department inclosing a 
copy of a letter from the state department, directing my attention to the 
statement made by Mr. Sandford, our minister resident at Brussels, a copy 
of which I inclose for the better understanding of the present communica- 
tion. In obedience to its directions I set about making inquiries through 
my secret police, and finding it a matter of very grave import as affecting 
the relations of the French consul here, I undertook a personal examination 
of the subject. The facts as substantiated by the documentary and other 
testimony, hereto appended, are substantially these: 

"The firm of Ed. Gautherin & Co., composed of Ed. Gautherin and Al- 
fred and Jules Lemore, doing business in New Orleans, was also concerned 
in a house at Havre, S. A. Lemore & Co. Jules and Alfred Lemore, the 
partners in New Orleans, were also partners in that house. Gautherin & 
Co. were at first employed in buying tobacco for the French government, 
afterward they were concerned in shipping cotton in joint account. They 
represent themselves to be agents of Baron Villers, the contractor for 
French army clothing, 

" On the 29th day of July, 1861, as will appear from the copy of a con- 
tract with the Confederate government, herewith inclosed, and marked X, 
the original of which is in my possession, Gautherin & Co. agreed to fur- 
nish the Confederates with a large amount of cloths for uniforms, which 
are the cloths spoken of in the communication of Mr. Sandford. About the 
first of April, of this year, a cargo of the goods was shipped to Havana, and 
from thence to Matamoras, under charge of the senior partner of the house 
of Edward Gautherin & Co., now in Europe. 

" That cloth was smuggled across to Brownsville, and delivered to Cap- 
tain Shankey, quartermaster and agent of the Confederate government. 
The original invoice and receipt are hereto annexed, marked E and F. Be- 
tween the 14th and the 24th of April, the day the fleet passed the forts, Mr. 
J. B. D. De Bow, produce loan-agent of the Confederate States, made ap- 
olication to the ' Bank of New Orleans' for a loan of four hundred and five 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 379 



thousand dollars in coin without interest, as will appear by the communica- 
tion hereto annexed, marked 0. This proposition was acceded to by the 
bank, upon a pledge, made by Payne, Huntington & Co., the junior partner 
of which firm was president of the bank, of cotton to be delivered on the 
plantations in Louisiana and Mississippi. The contract is hereto annexed, 
and marked D. 

"This transaction was not entered into in good faith, as is confessed by 
the testimony of the acting president, Mr. Davis, taken from his own lips, 
in short hand, a copy of which is hereto annexed, marked 0. 

"But the transaction was a contrivance by which the specie might be got 
out of the bank. Specie to this amount was placed in the hands of the 
French consul with his full knowledge of the intent of the transaction, and 
a receipt was given by him to hold it in trust for the Bank of New Orleans. 
At the same time, a pretended sale of the remainder of the specie in bank, 
amounting to four hundred thousand dollars for sterling, was made by the 
bank, and that sum was also placed in the hands of the French consul.* 
These two sums, amounting to eight hundred thousand dollars, made sub- 
stantially the whole specie capital of the bank. This is shown by the con- 
fession of the only director of the bank who has not run away into the 
Confederacy, Mr. Harroll, a copy of whose statement is hereto annexed, 
marked B. 

" Matters stood in this condition at the time the city of New Orleans was 
taken possession of by us. Upon my assurance to the bank, that if they 
would return their specie, they should be protected, the pretended sale for 
sterling exchange was annulled, and the French consul sent back the money, 
and the bank received into its vaults four hundred thousand dollars. 

"In regard to the four hundred and five thousand dollars, the French 
consul became uneasy, and moved upon the bank to get at his receipt given 
to the Bank of New Orleans, and gave a new receipt, running directly to 
Gautherin & Oo. 

" At this point of time, I ordered all the specie in the hands of the French 
consul to be sequestered and held until affairs could be investigated. 

" Eeverdy Johnson, on commission of the state department, came down 
here, and without investigation, and without knowing anything of the trans- 
actions, and without even inquiring of me about them, made such repre- 
sentations to the department of state, that I was ordered to release the 
French consul from his promise not to deliver up any specie held in his 
hands without informing me, which order I obeyed. 

"In the mean time, Gautherin & Go. had succeeded in delivering their 
goods to the Confederate States agents, and called upon the bank to get 
their money, which had been deposited in the hands of the French consul. 

* I need hardly call the readers attention to the siiniiarity of this " contrivance" for getting rid 
of specie to that employed by the Citizens 1 Bank. 



380 



GENEEAL BTJTLEE AND THE FOEEIGN CONSULS. 



This delivery had not been completed at Brownsville until 22d June; and 
some time in the last of July, the bank, through its officers, gave up its re- 
ceipts, which were destroyed, and took a receipt which was dated back to 
the 16th of April, directly from G-au therm & Co.. so that the French con- 
sul's name would not appear in the transaction. 

" These facts are established by the testimony of Mr. Belly, the cashier 
of the bank, which is written out and signed, and sworn to by him, a copy 
of which is annexed, marked O P. The money was sent on board the 
Spanish man-of-war Blasco de Garay, which left this port in September 
last, and has now returned, and has been carried to Havana, and thence 
shipped to New York. All this has been done with the knowledge and 
consent of the consul of France. 

" You will see by the letter of Mr. Sandford the difficulties w r hich the 
Confederates had of getting more goods, on account of the non-payment of 
the first bill. Another cargo is now in Havana, not to be delivered, of 
course, until the first is paid for. By this wrongful, illegal, and inimical 
interference of the French consul, aided by the Spanish ship-of-war, the 
money has gone forward, so that the holders of the goods will be ready to 
ship the remainder for the benefit of the Confederate army. A more fla- 
grant violation of international law and national courtesy on the part of a 
consular agent, cannot be. imagined. 

" Before I proceeded upon the investigation, not knowing the extent to 
which the French consul was implicated, I called upon him, and after show- 
ing him a letter from the commanding general of the army, in which I was 
directed to cultivate the most friendly relations with him, I read him a let- 
ter from our minister at Brussels, and told him I should desire his friendly 
aid in making the investigation, and then asked him if he knew anything 
of the transaction spoken of in the letter of Mr. Sandford, or if any money 
had been deposited with him for any such purpose. He in the most em- 
phatic manner assured me that he Tcnew nothing of any such transaction. 
He only knew that there was a French house of the name of G-autherin & 
Co. in New Orleans, and declared that no money had ever been deposited 
with him for any such purpose. I then informed him that it would become 
my duty to arrest and question Alfred and Jules Lemore, the resident part- 
ners of the French house. I did so, and they denied all such transaction, 
or refused to answer, lest they should 1 criminate themselves.' But, in the 
mean time, I had possessed myself of their books and papers, and found two 
accounts, translations of which I inclose, marked B A, which show the 
whole transaction ; and which also show that one Kossuth, a clerk of the 
French consul, whose name appears in the account, received $528.92 as a 
fee for keeping the money within the French consulate ; that a douceur was 
given to Madame Ifejan for the purpose of ''carrying out the affair well ;' 
that a lawyer was paid to deal with the consul in this matter ; and these 



GENEEAL BUTLEE AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 



381 



papers, with the testimony of the president, director and cashier of the 
bank, put the guilt of Count Mejan beyond question. 1 beg leave to call 
your attention to this extraordinary amount of expenses ($19,939.40). 

"I need not suggest to the department that it is its duty at once and 
peremptorily to revoke the exequatur of Count Mejan. He has connived at 
the delivery of army clothing of the Confederate army, since the occupation 
of Xew Orleans by the federal forces ; he has taken away gold from the 
bank, nearly half a million of its specie, to aid the Confederates ; acts which 
could not have been done without his aid, and that of the Spanish ship-of- 
war Blasco de Garay. 

,k I leave the consul to the government at Washington. I will take care 
sufficiently to punish the other alien enemies and domestic traitors con- 
cerned in this business whom I have here. 

" Upon examination of the parties, I found that a box containing all the 
papers relating to the transaction, which were not kept with the com- 
mercial papers of the house of Gautherin & Co., was deposited with the 
French consul. I wrote to him, very politely, to have it delivered to me 
for the purpose of justice. I have again written him more peremptorily, 
and he has refused to do so, still concealing the proofs of guilt. If pro- 
duced, I believe it will show him to be one of the five parties concerned in 
the illegal traffic mentioned in the account of expenses ; and however that 
maybe, he now covers the criminal as he lately concealed the booty, which 
he, his wife and his clerk so largely shared. 

"I beg leave here to call the attention of the department to these trans- 
actions, as showing that I was clearly right when I ordered the specie 
deposits in the hands of Count Mejan to be sequestered. His flag has been 
made to cover all manner of illegal and hostile transactions, and the booty 
arising therefrom. I am glad that my action here has been vindicated to 
the world, and that the government of the United States will be able to 
demand of the French government a recall of its hostile agent. . 
; ' I have the honor to be, 

" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"Benj. F. Btjtlee, Major- General commanding." 

This it is to " investigate" an affair. I know not which most to 
admire, the vigor and tact displayed in procuring the evidence, or 
the clearness with which the results of the inquiry are stated. 

General Butler alludes several times to the bill of " charges and 
expenses" found in the books of Gautherin & Co. It is an ex- 
tremely curious document. The following are the items : 

" June 29. By payment to Ed. Gautherin and Jules Lemore to 
go to Richmond, $481. 



382 



GENERAL butler and the foreign consuls. 



" July 20. By remittance to them at Richmond, -$450. French 
consul loan, $50. 

" March 1. Expenses of E. Gautherin & Co. and Jules Lemore 
for passage from Xev Orleans to New York and Havre, $700. 

" May 2V. Voyage of Ch. Privelland to Richmond and back, 
$543. Maintain to Richmond, five weeks, 8475.50. Expenses of 
L. Grotairs at Antwerp, $9.98. Consul fees and certificates, $36.20. 

"August 10. Present to Madame Mejan (wife of French con- 
sul), to close the affair well, $153. Colonel Lemat, as a bribe for the 
affair to start well, $2,500. Y. Pritert, for the bill of Alexander, 
according to the agreement of the five interested parties, $5,000. 
Kossuth (clerk of French consul), one-eighth per cent, of $405,000, 
deposited in consulate, $528.20. Payment to Fuette for getting 
the receipt, $500. Robert (lawyer), for proceedings with authori- 
ties and consul, $500. 

"August 31. Ch. Briolland, expenses to Matamoras, $3,790. 
Jules Lemore, expenses from January 1, to September 1, 1862, 
$1,089.71. Payment of cabs and transport of nine boxes of gold, 
$60. Expenses of telegraph and postage, $150. Insurance on gold in 
consulate, six months, one-half per cent, on $405,000, -$2,025. River 
insurance on Blasco de Garay, one-eighth per cent, on $250,000, 
$312.50. Marine insurance, from here to New York, on specie, 
$585.26. E. Gautherin, expenses paid in sum, $4,058.50. Ferran 
& Duprerris, Havana, as a memorandum, $4,058.50." 

Total, $19,939.40 ! ! 

So much for the French consul. I can not resist the impression 
that the same methods of investigation, applied to other cases, 
would have yielded results strikingly similar. 

Seizure of 3,205 Hogsheads of Sugar. 

This sugar was seized on the ground that it was designed as a 
support to the credit of the Confederate government in Europe, and 
that the ostensible owner was only an agent of a company of Euro- 
pean merchants, formed chiefly for that purpose. Three of the for- 
eign consuls objected to the seizure, averring that the sugar had 
been bought for purposes " strictly mercantile," and requesting its 
restoration ; and if this were done, they expressed a willingness to 
" waive all past proceedings," and let the matter rest. General 
Butler made a spirited reply to their communication ■ 



J 



GENERAL BUTLER AXD THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 



383 



" Head-qtjaetees, Depaetmext of the Gulf, 
" New Oeleans, June 12, 1862. 

" Gentlemen : — In the matter of the sugars in possession of Mr. Covas, 
who is the only party known to the United States authorities, I have ex- 
amined with care the statement you have sent me. I had information, the 
sources of which you will not expect me to disclose, that Mr. Govas had 
been engaged in buying Confederate notes, giving for them sterling ex- 
change, thus transferring abroad the credit of the states in the rebellion, 
and enabling these bills of credit to be converted into bullion to be used 
there, as it has been, for the purpose of purchasing arms and munitions of 
war. That Mr. Covas was one of, and the agent of, an association or com- 
pany of Greek merchants residing here, in London, and in Havana, who had 
set apart a large fund for this enterprise. That these Confederate notes, so 
purchased by Mr. Covas, had been used in the purchase of sugars and cot- 
ton, of which the sugars in question, in value almost two hundred thousand 
dollars, are a part. 

ik I directed Mr. Covas to hold these sugars until this matter could be in- 
vestigated. 

I am satisfied of the substantial truth of this information. Mr. Covas' 
own books, will show the important facts that he sold sterling exchange 
for Confederate treasury notes, and then bought these sugars with the 
notes. 

k> Now this is claimed to be ' strictly mercantile.' 

" It will not be denied that the sugars were intended for a foreign mar- 
ket. 

••But the government of the United States had said, that with the 
port of New Orleans there should be no ' strictly mercantile' transac- 
tions. 

" It would not be contended for a moment, that the exchanging of specie 
for Confederate treasury notes, and sending the specie to Europe, to enable 
the rebels to buy arms and munitions of war there, were not a breach of 
the blockade, as well as a violation of the neutrality laws and the proclama- 
tion of their majesties, the queen of Great Britain and the emperor of 
France. What distinguishes the two cases, save that drawing the sterling 
bills is a more safe and convenient way of eluding the laws, than sending 
bullion in specie, and thus assisting the rebellion in the point of its utmost 
need? 

" It will be claimed, that to assist the rebellion was not the motive. 
11 Granted ' causa argumentV 

" It was done from the desire of gain, as doubtless all the violations of 
neutrality have been done by aliens during this war — a motive which is not 
sanctifying to acts by a foreigner, which, if done by a subject, would be 
treason, or a high misdemeanor. 



384 GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN SON&ULS. 

"My proclamation of May 1 assured respect to all persons and property 
that were respectable. It was not an amnesty to murderers, thieves, and 
criminals of deeper dye or less heinousness, nor a mantle to cover the prop- 
erty of those aiders of the rebellion, whether citizens or aliens, whom I 
might find here. If numbers of the foreign residents here have been en- 
gaged in aiding the rebellion, either directly or indirectly, from a spirit of 
gain, and they now find themselves objects of watchful supervision by the 
authorities of the United States, they will console themselves with the re- 
flection, that they are only getting the ' bitter with the sweet.' Nay, more, 
if honest and quiet foreign citizens find thei? .selves the objects of suspicion 
to, and even their honest acts subjects of investigation by the authorities 
of the United States, to their inconvenience, they will, upon reflection, 
blame only the over-rapacious and greedy of their own fellow-citizens, who 
have, by their aid to rebellion, brought distrust aud suspicion over all. 
"Wishing 'to treat you, gentlemen, with every respect, I have set forth at 
length, some of the reasons which have prompted my action. There is one 
phrase in your letter which I do not understand, and can not permit to pass 
without calling attention to it. You say, ' the undersigned are disposed to 
waive all past proceedings,' etc. 

" What 1 proceedings' have you, or either of you, to k waive,' if you do feel 
disposed so to do ? What right have you in the matter ? What authority 
is vested in you by the laws of nations, or of this country, which gives you 
the power to use such language to the representative of the United States, 
in a quasi official communication ? 

" Commercial agents merely of a subordinate class, consuls, have no 
power to waive or condone any proceedings, past or present, of the govern- 
ment under whose protection they are permitted to reside so long as they 
behave well. If I have committed any wrong to Mr. Oovas, you have no 
power to ' waive' or pardon the penalty, or prevent his having redress. If 
he has committed any wrong to the United States, you have still less power 
to shield him from punishment. 

" I take leave to suggest, as a possible explanation of this sentence, that 
you have been so long dealing with a rebel Confederation, which has been 
supplicating you to make such representations to the governments whose 
subjects you are, as would induce your sovereigns to aid it in its traitorous 
designs, that you have become rusty in the language proper to be used in 
representing the claims of your fellow-citizens to the consideration of 
a great and powerful government, entitled to equal respect with your 
own. 

" In order to prevent all misconception, and that for the future you gen- 
tlemen may know exactly the position upon which I act in regard to foreign- 
ers resident here, permit me to explain to you, that I think a foreign resident 
here has not one right more than an American citizen, but at leas', one 



GENEEAL BUTLEE AND THE F0EEIGN CONSULS. 385 

right less ; i. e., that of meddling or interfering, by discussion, vote, or other- 
wise, with the affairs of the government. 

" I have the honor to subscribe myself your obedient servant, 

"B. F. BUTLEE, 

u Major- General Commanding. 
" Messrs. G-eoege Ooppell, claiming to be H. B. M. Acting Consul ; A. 
Mejan, French Consul; M. "W. Benachi, Greek Consul." 

The matter was referred to Mr. Reverdy Johnson. He decided 
in favor of the claimants, and the sugar was consequently restored. 
He found the transactions to have been strictly mercantile. " There 
is not," he reported, " a scintilla of evidence that they ever belonged 
to such an association, if there was one (of which, however, there 
is no proof), but, on the contrary, their conduct in negotiating their 
bills, as exhibited in the many depositions annexed, is absolutely in- 
consistent with such a connection. The seizure by the major-gen- 
eral was evidently made under a misapprehension. His conduct in 
this particular, as in those of the eight hundred thousand dollars 
and seven hundred and sixteen thousand one hundred and ninety- 
six dollars, is to be referred to the patriotic zeal which governs 
him, to the circumstances encircling his command at the time so 
well calculated to awaken suspicion, and to an ardent desire to 
punish, to the extent of his supposed power, all who had con- 
tributed, or were contributing, to the aid of a rebellion, the most 
unjustifiable and wicked that insane or bad men were ever en- 
gaged in." 

In giving up the sugar, General Butler politely congratulated 
the owners that, owing to the rapid enhancement of the value of 
the article, in consequence of the opening of the port, its detention 
would prove a great gain to them. 

Case of Kennedy & Go. 

Steamboat-hunting was a favorite pastime with the Union sol- 
diers during the first weeks of their occupation of the city. The 
rebels had burnt a large number of their steamboats, but many had 
been hidden in bayous and swamps supposed to be impenetrable to 
the unaccustomed Yankee. The men had rare adventures in hunt- 
ing this valuable game, some of which may hereafter be related. On 
board one of the steamers found, named the Fox, captured by Gen 



386 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 



eral McMillan, a mail-bag was discovered, the contents of which 
brought several of the people <3f New Orleans into trouble — Messrs. 
Kennedy & Co., cotton merchants, among the number. 

General Butler briefly relates the case : " Kennedy & Co. were 
merchants doing business in New Orleans, the members of which 
firm were citizens of the United States. They shipped cotton 
(bought at Vicksburg and brought to New Orleans) from a bayou 
on the coast, whence steamers were accustomed to run the block- 
ade to Havana, in defiance of the law and the president's proclama- 
tion, and under the farther agreement with the Confederate author- 
ties here, that a given per cent, of the value of their cargoes should 
be returned in arms and munitions of war for the use of the rebels. 

" Without such an agreement no cotton could be shipped from 
New Orleans, and this was publicly known ; and the fact of knowl- 
edge that a permit for the vessel to ship cotton could only be got 
on such terms was not denied at the hearing. 

" The cotton was sold in Havana, and the net proceeds invested 
in a draft (first, second, and third of exchange) dated April 30th, 
L862, payable to the London agent of the house of Kennedy & Co., 
ind the first and second sent forward to London, and the third, 
with account sales and vouchers, forwarded to the firm here through 
an illicit mail on board the steamer 'Fox,' likewise engaged in 
carrying unlawful merchandise and an illicit mail between Havana 
and the rebel states. 

" The third of exchange and papers were captured by the army 
of the United States, on the 10th day of May, on board the 'Fox,' 
flagrante delictu, surrounded by the rebel arms and munitions, con- 
cealed in a bayou leading out of Barataria bay, attempting to land 
her contraband mails and scarcely less destructive arms and muni- 
tions to be sent through the bayous and swamps to the enemy. 

" During all this time, P. H. Kennedy & Co. have not accepted 
the amnesty proffered by the proclamation of the commanding gen- 
eral, but preferred to remain within its terms rebels and enemies. 

" Upon this state of facts, the commanding general called upon 
Kennedy & Co. to pay the amount of the net proceeds of the cot- 
ton (the third of exchange of the draft), which, with the docu- 
ments relating to this unlawful transaction he had captured, as a 
proper forfeiture to the government under the facts above stated ; 
which was done." 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 



387 



General Butler voluntarily submitted this case to the judgment 
of Mr. Johnson, who decided against the forfeiture, on the follow- 
ing grounds : 

1. That there was no capture of the property or its representa- 
tive while actually running the blockade. 

2. That there was no personal delection in Kennedy & Co. in 
the acts done by them, which could render them subject to for- 
feiture. 

3. That the blockade being raised by the proclamation of the 
president before the capture of the draft, all delection on account 
of the transaction was purged. 

These points he argued precisely as he would have argued them 
had the rebellion been a legitimate war between two foreign na- 
tions ; quoting such authorities as Yattel, Grotius, Puflfendorf, and 
Wheaton, who wrote on international law. General Butler yielded 
to the decision, and paid back the money (88,641) ; but he could not 
refrain from reviewing Mr. Johnson's argument. Addressing Mr. 
Johnson himself, he remarked that, " as applied to this transaction, 
the citations and arguments derived from elementary writers upon 
the law of nations, are of no value. This is not the case of a resi- 
dent subject of a foreign state attempting to elude the vigilance of 
a blockade by a foreign power of a port of a third nation. The 
rule that the successful running of the blockade, or a subsequent 
raising of the blockade purges the transaction so far as punishment 
for personal delection is concerned, is too familiar to need citation, 
at least by a lawyer to a lawyer. It would be desirable to see 
some citations to show that there was no personal delection in the 
transaction under consideration. 

" A traitorous commercial house Meetly engage in the treason- 
able work of aiding a rebellion against the government, by enter- 
ing into a trade the direct eifect of which is to furnish the rebels 
with arms and munitions. To do this they intentionally violate the 
revenue laws, the postal laws of their country, as well as the laws 
prohibiting trade with foreign countries from this port, and are 
caught in the act, and fined only the amount of the proceeds of 
their illegal and treasonable transaction. 

" Their lives, by every law, were forfeit to the country of their 
allegiance. 

" The representative of that country takes a comparatively ^maJJ 
17 



388 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 



fine from them and a commissioner of that same country refunds it. 
because of its impropriety. 

" Grotius, PufFendorf, Vattel, and Wheaton will be searched, it 
is believed, in vain, for a precedent for such action. Why cite 
international law to govern a transaction between the rebellious 
traitor and his own government? Around the state of Louisiana 
the government had placed the impassable barrier of law, cohering 
each and every subject, saying to him, from that state no cotton 
should be shipped and no arms imported, and there no mails or let- 
ters should be delivered. 

" To warn off foreigners, to prevent bad men of our own citizens 
violating that law, the government had placed ships. Now, what- 
ever may be the law relating to the intruding foreigner, can it be 
said for a moment that the fact that a traitor has successfully elud- 
ed the vigilance of the government, that that very success purges 
the crime, which might never have been criminal but for that suc- 
cess. . j 



" The fine will be restored, because stare decislis, but the guilty 
party ought to be and will be punished. 

" A course of treatment of rebels which should have such results, 
would not only be ' rose-water,' but diluted 4 rose-water/ 

" The other reason given for the decision that the blockade had 
been raised, is a mistake in point of fact, both in the date and the place 
of capture. The capture was not made of a vessel running into 
the port of New Orleans when the blockade was raised, but from 
one of those lagoons where, in former times, Lafitte the pirate car- 
ried on a hardly more atrocious business. 

" Something was said at the hearing that this money was in- 
tended by Kennedy & Co. for nor 4 ^rn creditors. 

" Sending it to England does r ,i seem the best evidence of that 
intention. 

" But, of course, no such consideration could enter into the de- 
cision. I have reviewed this decision at some length, because it 
seems to me that it offers a premium for treasonable acts to traitors 
in the Confederate States. It says, in substance, ' Violate the laws 
of the United States as well as you can, send abroad all the pro- 
duce of the Confederate States you can, to be converted into arms 
for the rebellion ; you only take the risk of losing in transitu; and 
as the profits are four-fold you can afford to do so. But it is sol- 




GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 



389 



emnly decided that in all this there is no ''personal detection] for 
which you can or ought to be punished even by a fine, and if you 
are, the fine shall be returned.' " 

Mr. Johnson replied to this review in a voluminous and ably 
written argument, which was handed to General Butler three hour? 
before its author sailed for the North. There was, therefore, no 
opportunity for reply. The chief point of Mr. Johnson's new 
argument was, that there was no evidence that Kennedy & Co. 
had agreed to invest any portion of the proceeds of the cotton in 
arms and munitions of war. They denied that they had either en- 
gaged to do this, or had done it. This defense, since by Confed- 
erate law no cotton could be exported on any other terms, was 
equivalent to saying that Kennedy & Co. had been faithless to 
both governments, and were liable to two actions for treason in- 
stead of one. 

Case of Avendano Brothers. 

The capture of the steamer Fox led to the discovery of the 
complicity of this firm also with the rebellion. The case was so 
clear and aggravated, that the house never thought of complaining 
of General Butler's conduct with regard to it, until the decisions 
of Mr. Reverdy Johnson gave them hopes of a successful appeal to 
the government at Washington. General Butler being called upon 
for a statement of the facts, gave them with such cogency as to 
silence the Spanish minister. 

"The house of Avendano Brothers," he wrote, in October, "has been 
established in New Orleans so long that its members have become an inte- 
gral part of the population, in interest, in feeling, and in social ties. Be- 
fore the breaking out of this rebellion, its members never thought of seek- 
ing the protection of Spain. But since this rebellion all has changed, and 
new the Spanish consul claims that persons thirty years of age, born of 
Spanish parents, who have lived here from their birth, and their ancestors 
before them, are still Spanish subjects, and is issuing certificates of nation- 
ality accordingly ; so that this city has become almost entirely depopulated 
as to citizens, except of free persons of color, who singularly claim protec- 
tion of our government where so little has been heretofore afforded them. 

" The house of Avendano Brothers has been largely engaged in running 
?otton through the blockade, and importing arms and munitions of war. 

" No cotton was allowed by the Confederates to be shipped unless arms 



390 



GENERAL BUTLEE AXD THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 



and munitions of war were returned in the proportion of one-half. Aven- 
dano Brothers shipped largely under this permission, and have been en- 
gaged in breaking every law of neutrality and national hospitality that can 
be well conceived. 

"Somewhere about the 10th of May I captured the Confederate steamer 
Fox, which had been seized by the Confederates from her Union owners 
and turned into their service, and employed in running the blockade (she 
made three trips thus). She had on board a cargo of arms, powder, lead, 
quicksilver, acids for telegraphic purposes, chloroform and morphine for 
medical stores, to the amount of $300,000 or thereabouts — all of the great- 
est necessity to the rebels, and had run into the Bayou La Fourche, in the 
west bank of the Mississippi, from which bayou she might, if she thought 
proper, run to Yicksburg. 

" She had besides the invoices, letters of advice, bills of lading, bills of 
exchange, and the evidences of the transactions of many of the mercantile 
houses of New Orleans. 

" The letters of advice, bills of lading, and invoices show the nature of 
the transaction between these parties and their correspondents at Havana. 
The bills of exchange were products of the shipments of cotton, less the 
proportion invested in contraband goods. Among them were the bills of 
exchange payable to the house of Avendano Brothers, the first having been 
forwarded by some other conveyance, but still unpaid, and these bills of ex- 
change were for one-half the proceeds of the cargo shipped, the other half 
jeing invested in. munitions of war. 

" This vessel also carried a mail, containing amongst other things, the 
official correspondence between the rebel commissioner Eost, which I for- 
warded to the state department, and the rebel ordnance office in Eurooe, 
relating to his movements there, which I forwarded to the war department, 
as well as other important letters which developed the nature of the busi- 
ness being carried on between this port and the miscalled neutral ports — 
Havana and Nassau. Upon personal examination, I had no doubt that the 
house of Avendano was largely interested in, or the consignees of the major 
part of the cargo of the 'Fox :' and in order to put a stop to this traffic, 
which could still be carried on through the fifty-three openings in the Gulf 
of Mexico from Louisiana, I called upon the house of Avendano ; and 
upon personal examination they did not deny the part they had taken in 
the traffic. 

" I required them, therefore, having captured in bulk one-half the fruits 
of their illegal traffic, and having captured the other half thereof in the 
shape of a bill of exchange, to pay over the other half, being the jills of 
exchange. This they did, and received the bills of exchange and papers, 
regarding that as a light punishment for their crimes. 

"Because of other transactions which have come to my knowledge, the 



GENERAL BTTTLEE AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 



391 



senior partner has escaped to Havana, but the honse is still carrying on 
business here, and are the consignees of the steamer ' Cardenas,' which has 
been the cause of so many breaches of our quarantine laws and so many 
complaints of the Spanish minister. 

" Avendano sent a rebel lawyer, who had refused to renew his oath o* 
allegiance to the United States, to me to make some representations of the 
matter and to argue certain legal questions. In answer to some suggestions 
as to the amount of fine, I told him that Avendano might think himself 
well off if he lost no more of the profits of his infernal trade. 

•• This, it will be observed, was about the 19th of May, and no complaints 
are made of it for three months, until emboldened by the success of the 
complaints to the commission here, which has done more to strengthen the 
hand of secession than any other occurrence of the south-west since my ad- 
vent in New Orleans, and the commissioner of which commission, as I am 
now ready to prove, acted as the paid attorney of rebels in making claims 
against the United States from retainers taken because of his acting here 
in his official capacity. 

•■ This commission, I say, emboldened these new complaints of my action 
by mercantile pirates and marauders, who supplied arms and powder to trai- 
tors, and who are only saved from the consequences of treason because they 
have not given their allegiance to the country that had given them protec- 
tion and enabled them to accumulate fortunes ; advantages they believed 
their own governments could not give them, and so preferred to live undei 
ours, but not to assume their proper obligations. 

"They should have been hanged; they were ovUj fined. 

11 His excellency, the Spanish minister, seems to think that running the 
blockade carries its own punishment with it ; but this is not a case of run- 
ning a blockade merely, but is the case of an importer of arms, of an army 
contractor for the rebel government ; and this draft, which the house of 
Avendano has paid, and the money used for the support of the troops of 
the United States in this department, is only one-half the proceeds of a 
single adventure of the house of Avendano in breaking the laws and aiding 
the rebellion — the other half being returned to the Confederates in arms 
and munitions of war. 

" I aver to the secretary of war, upon my official responsibility, that with- 
out, aid furnished by foreign mercantile houses in New Orleans, Mobile, 
Savannah and Charleston, as I am convinced by the most irrefragable 
evidence, this rebellion would have wholly failed to arm and supply itself. 
And the most active agents, and most efficient supporters have been the 
same quasi foreign houses, mostly Jews and their correspondents, principal- 
ly in Havana and Nassau ; who all deserve to receive at the hands of this 
government what is due to the Jew Benjamin, Slidell, Mallory or Floyd. 
Only the strong repressive measures which have been fearlessly and ener- 



392 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 



getically taken in this department, have prevented the supply from still going 
on here as it does at Charleston in South Carolina. 

" Tempted by the immense profits, waging the war in order to realize 
those profits, these foreign adventurers have done everything they could to 
sustain the war, and to inflame the passions of the people against the United 
States; and their reiterated complaints of my conduct, and the howl in 
Europe and elsewhere set up by them at my every act, have been simply 
the result of the disappointment of those who desire that some action may 
be taken by the government which would reopen to them a most profitable 
trade, which I have closed by the measures of which complaint has been 
made, and as to which the honorable secretary of state has been pleased 
to say redress will be made if I fail to justify my acts. 

" I have stated the grounds upon which my action proceeded, and the 
purpose for which it was taken. Of course, to do this work could be of no 
personal advantage to myself and only entailed great and severe labor. 

" It was dictated by a sense of duty, and upon full and thorough examin- 
ation I have failed to see any reason why it should not be persevered in. 
But I respectfully submit that it adds not a little to the already overtasking 
labor of this department, to be continually called upon, months after, to 
reinvestigate and report upon acts which were within the scope of my 
jurisdiction in the fair exercise of the discretion of a military commander, 
and for which I should be called to account, not by a letter of a foreign con- 
sular agent on the ex parte statement of a Spanish smuggler, but by the 
commander-in-chief of the army, or the president of the United States, to 
whom I am as ready to account for my every action, as I am to my country 
and my God." 

This is strong language. The documents before me justify it. 
They show beyond all doubt that the rebels in New Orleans, both 
native and foreign, were only deterred from ministering to the re- 
bellion by the fact which General Butler never allowed them to 
forget, that in New Orleans the United States was Master. 

English and Spanish Men-of- War at New Orleans. 

The officers and crews of foreign vessels-of-war that chanced to 
visit New Orleans in the summer and autumn of 1862, took pains to 
show that they were in accord with the secession consuls and the 
disloyal citizens. New Orleans was a good place to learn that in 
this great quarrel there are arrayed against the United States the 
entire baseness, and a great part ol the ignorance, of the human 



GENERAL BUTLER ANL THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 393 

race. Every one in the world is against us, who is willing to live 
upon the unrequited, or upon the ill-requited labor of others. 

The British ship-of-war Rinaldo was in port during the early 
days of July. The humor of the officers and crew of this ship 
may best be shown from the matter-of-fact report of Mr. James 
Duane, lieutenant of police : — " Having learned on Thursday even- 
ing that a large crow T d of turbulent citizens was collected on the 
levee opposite the steamer Rinaldo, and that on board that vessel 
certain parties were engaged in singing the ' Bonnie Blue Flag,' 
and crying ' Down with the Stars and Stripes,' and that the crowd 
were responding by cheers for Jeff. Davis, the Southern Confeder- 
acy, &g. ; and, apprehending a riot, I detailed my entire force, and 
accompanied them myself to the levee, where I arrived about eight 
o'clock p. m., and found a crowd of nearly two thousand men, 
women, and children. From the ship I distinctly heard the singing 
of the ' Bonnie Blue Flag,' cheers for Jeff. Davis ; cries of ' Down 
with the Stars and Stripes,' and ' Up with the Flag of the Single 
Star.' The response by the crowd was not' general, but con- 
fined to an occasional voice, and as fast as it occurred I arrested 
the party so responding. The same conduct occurred on Friday 
night, to my personal knowledge. 

" From my officers, and citizens residing in the neighborhood, 1 
have received information that the same proceedings took place on 
the Wednesday evening preceding the above, and, in addition, 
that on that evening a secession flag was flying on board the 
Rinaldo for a short time, and that a smaller flag of the Confederacy 
was flying from the boats that conveyed visitors to and from the 
vessel and the ] evee. On Saturday evening, the same demon- 
strations were repeated, with the exception of the display of seces- 
sion flags. And, furthermore, on the same evening, between eight 
and nine o'clock, one of my officers saw an officer of the Rinaldo, in 
uniform, accompanied by a man who claimed to belong to that 
vessel, and a tall negro. The officer was intoxicated, and was 
singing, the 'Bonnie Blue Flag.' My officer stepped up to him 
and told him he must not sing that song. The British officer re- 
plied that 'he would sing what he damn pleased.' They then 
went on down the levee and got into their ship's boat, and as soon 
as they were out of the reach of the police officer, called out ' God 
damn the Yankee sons of , one Englishman can whip ten of 



394 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 



them,' and again sung the ' Bonnie Blue Flag,' all joining in thu 

song." 

Word was brought to General Butler, on the 3d of July, that the 
captain of the Rinaldo had promised his secession friends to hoist 
the rebel flag on his ship on the morning of the fourth. The gene 
ral, I am told, avowed to a confidential member of his staff, his 
solemn and deliberate resolve, if the flag was oflicially displayed, 
to open fire upon the ship with artillery. The hoisting of the flag, 
he considered, would be more than an insult to the United States ; it 
would constitute the ship a rebel vessel, and, as such, she was to be 
fired upon, the very instant a Union gun could be brought to bear 
upon her. The report proved to be false. 

Still more outrageous was the conauct -wf the Spanish man-of- 
war. It was in a Spanish vessel, as we have seen, that the French 
consul shipped his $405,000. Other Spanish vessels-of-war car- 
ried away passengers, treasure, plate, papers, which were justly 
liable to seizure. " The deck of the Blasco de Garay," wrote 
General Butler in October, " was literally crowded with passen- 
gers, selected with so little discrimination, that my detective officers 
found on board, as a passenger, an escaped convict of the peniten- 
tiary, who was in full flight from a most brutal murder, with his 
booty robbed from his victim with him." On other Spanish ships 
several persons deeply implicated in the rebellion, guilty of hostile 
acts after the capture of the city, effected their escape to Havana, 
with large amounts of treasure. Hence the claim of General 
Butler to search departing vessels-of-war, and hence a ream of com- 
plaints and protests from Spanish officers. 

The Quarantine Imbroglio. 

It is not generally known at the North, that, in the worst years, 
the mortality from yellow fever in New Orleans exceeds that from 
any epidemic that has ever raged in "a civilized community. It is 
worse than the modern cholera, worse than the small-pox before 
inoculation, worse than the ancient plague. A competent and 
entirely trustworthy writer gives the facts of the yellow fever sea- 
son of 1853, the most fatal year ever known : 

" Commencing on the 1st of August, with one hundred and six 
deaths by yellow fever, one hundred and forty-two by all diseases, 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 395 

the number increased daily, until for the first week, ending on the 
7th, they amounted to nine hundred and nine deaths by yellow 
fever, one thousand one hundred and eighty-six of all diseases. 
The next week showed a continued increase : one thousand two 
Hundred and eighty-eight yellow fever, one thousand five hundred 
and twenty-six of all diseases. This was believed to be the max- 
imum. There had been nothing to equal it in the history of any 
previous epidemics, and no one believed it could be exceeded. But 
the next week gave a mournful refutation of these predictions and 
calculations ; for that ever memorable week, the total deaths were 
one thousand five hundred and seventy-five, of yellow fever one 
thousand three hundred and forty-six. But the next week com- 
menced more gloomily still. The deaths on the 2 2d of August were 
two hundred and eighty-three of all diseases, two hundred and 
thirty-nine of yellow fever. This proved to be the maximum mor- 
tality of the season. From this it began slow iy to decrease. The 
month of August exhibited a grand total of five thousand one hun- 
dred and twenty-two deaths by yellow fever, and nearly seven thou- 
sand deaths of all diseases. Slowly the disease continued to de- 
crease, only for the want of victims, until on the 6th of September 
(at which time these notes are transcribed), when it reached sixty- 
five deaths by yellow fever, and ninety-five deaths of all diseases. 
Looking back from this point, we find that the whole number of 
deaths by yellow fever, from its first appearance on the 28th of 
May, were seven thousand one hundred and eighty-nine — deaths 
from all diseases nine thousand nine hundred and forty-one. But 
there are three hundred and forty-four deaths the cause of which is 
not stated in the burial certificates. At least three-fourths of these 
may be set down to the yellow fever column — which would add 
two hundred and fifty more, and make the deaths by yellow fever 
seven thousand four hundred and thirty-nine. 

" But do these figures include all the deaths ? Alas ! no. Hun- 
dreds have been buried of whom no note was taken, no record kept. 
Hundreds have died away from the city, in attempting to fly from 
it. Every steamer up the river contributed its share to the heca- 
tombs of victims of the pestilence. Nor do these returns include 
those who have died in the suburbs, in the towns of Algiers and 
Jefferson City, in the villages of Gretna and Carrollton. But even 
these figures, deficient as they are, need no additions to swell them 
17* 



896 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 



into proofs that the most destructive plague of modern times has 
just wreaked its vengeance upon New Orleans. Estimating the 
total deaths at eight thousand for three months, we have ten per 
cent, of the whole population of New Orleans. At this rate it would 
only require two years and four months to depopulate the city. 

" But only the unacclimated are liable to the disease, and so we 
must exclude the old resident acclimated population, which, with 
slaves, and free colored persons, embrace at least two-thirds of the 
summer population of New Orleans. This would reduce the num- 
ber liable to yellow fever below thirty thousand. Of that number 
one-fourth have died in three months. There is scarcely any paral- 
lel to this mortality. The great Plague of London, in 1665, destroy- 
ed one out of every thirteen, and one-third of its population. That 
of New Orleans, in 1853, destroyed one out of every ten of its total 
population, and one out of every four of those susceptible of the 
disease. This exceeds the mortality in Philadelphia, in 1798, when 
it was estimated that one out of every six died."* 

These are terrible figures. The year 1853, was, however, an 
exceptional year. New Orleans has often escaped the yellow fever 
for years in succession. Its visitations were frequent enough to 
make it an ever present terror during the summer months, and to 
reduce the summer population of the city to a comparatively small 
number of unacclimated persons. The city had never escaped it 
in such circumstauces as existed in 1862; had never escaped it 
when the fever raged in the neighboring ports of Havana and 
Nassau ; had never e& japed it when the city was filled with per- 
sons unaccustomed to the climate. The rebels were, therefore, jus- 
tified in anticipating, with perfect confidence, that the season of 
1862 would present the same scenes of horror and devastation as 
those of 1853. 

No language can overstate the terrors of such a visitation. 
" Funeral processions," says the writer just quoted, " crowded 
every street. No vehicles could be 'seen except doctors' cabs and 
coaches, passing to and from the cemeteries, and hearses, often 
solitary, taking their way toward those gloomy destinations. The 
hum of trade was hushed. The levee was a desert. The streets, 
wont to shine with fashion and beauty, were silent. The tombs — 
the home of the dead — were the only places where there was life, 

* Harper's Magazine, November, 1853. 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 397 

where crowds assembled, where the incessant rumbling of car- 
riages, the trampling of feet, the murmur of voices, and all the 
signs of active, stirring life could be heard and seen. 

a To realize the full horror and virulence of the pestilence, you 
must go into the crowded localities of the laboring classes, into 
those miserable shanties which are the disgrace of the city, where 
the poor immigrant class cluster together in filth, sleeping a half- 
dozen in one room, without ventilation, and having access to filthy, 
wet yards, which have never been filled up, and when it rains are 
converted into green puddles — fit abodes for frogs and sources of 
poisonous malaria. Here you will find scenes of woe, misery, and 
death, which will haunt your memory in all time to come. Here 
you will see the dead and the dying, the sick and the convalescent, 
in one and the same bed. Here you will see the living babe suck- 
ing death from the yellow breast of its dead mother. Here father, 
mother, and child die in one another's arms. Here you will find 
whole families swept off in a few hours, so that none are left to 
mourn or to procure the rites of burial. Offensive odors frequently 
drew neighbors to such awful spectacles. Corpses would thus 
proclaim their existence, and enforce the observances due them. 
What a terrible disease! Terrible in its insidious character, in 
its treachery, in the quiet serpent-like manner in which it gradually 
winds its folds around its victim, beguiles him by its deceptive 
wiles ; cheats his judgment and senses, and then consigns him to 
grim death. Not like the plague, with its red spot, its maddening 
fever, its wild delirium and stupor — not like the cholera, in violent 
spasms and prostrating pains, is the approach of the vomito. It as- 
sumes the guise of the most ordinary disease which flesh is heir to 
— a cold, a slight chill, a headache, a slight fever, and, after a 
while, pains in the back. Surely there is nothing in these! 'I 
won't lay by for them,' says the misguided victim ; the poor 
laborer can not afford to do so. Instead of going to bed, sending 
for a nurse and doctor, taking a mustard-bath and a cathartic, he 
remains at his post until it is too late. He has reached the crisis of 
the disease before he is aware of its existence. The chances are 
thus against him. The fever mounts up rapidly, and the poison 
pervades his whole system. He tosses and rolls on his bed, and 
raves in agony. Thus he continues for thirty-six hours. Then the 
fever breaks, gradually it passes off— joy and hope begin to dawn 



398 GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 

upon him. He is through now. ' Am I not better, Doctor ?' 
' You are doing well, but must be very quiet.' Doing well ! How 
does the learned gentleman know ? Can he see into his stomach, 
and perceive there collecting the dark brown liquid which marks 
the dissolution that is going on ? The fever suddenly returns, but 
now the paroxysm is more brief. Again the patient is quiet, but 
not so hopeful as before. He is weak, prostrate, and bloodless, 
but he has no fever ; his pulse is regular, sound, and healthy, 
and his skin moist. 1 He will get well,' says the casual observer. 
The doctor shakes his head ominously. After a while, drops of 
blood are seen collecting about his lips. Blood comes from his 
gums — that is a bad sign, but such cases frequently occur. Soon 
he has a hiccough. That is worse than the bleeding at the gums : 
then follows the ejection of a dark brown liquid which he throws up 
in large quantities ; and this in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases 
out of a thousand is the signal that the doctor's function is at an end, 
and the undertaker's is to commence. In a few hours the coffin will 
receive its tenant, and mother earth her customary tribute." 

Dr. McCormick, who was in the city during those fearful weeks, 
has assured me that this picture is not overcharged. 

It was such an evil as this that General Butler set himself to 
ward from the city which he had been called to govern and pro- 
tect. His success was most remarkable. The yellow fever raged 
at Nassau, at Havana, and at other neighboring ports, but New 
Orleans escaped. Twenty thousand unacclimated persons, strangers, 
northerners, were in Louisiana, but not one of them had the fever. 
On the contrary, the men of his command enjoyed an extraordi- 
nary exemption from all mortal disease. They suffered little from 
the continuous heat, less from violent maladies. 

There was, indeed, one moment of danger, and of great alarm at 
head-quarters. Dr. McCormick, late in the season, when the dan- 
ger was supposed to be nearly over, came into the general's office 
one morning, and reported that a case of yellow fever of the worst 
type had been landed in the city. It was even so. The rigor of 
the quarantine had been once relaxed, and this was the alarming 
result. The affair was kept as secret as possible. The house in 
which the man lay was cleared of all inmates save himself and one 
acclimated attendant. The block of which the house was part 
was walled around by sentinels. No living creature was permitted 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. &99 

to enter or leave it. In five days the man died. Every article in 
his room was burnt or buried. His attendant was quarantined. 
The house, the block, the quarter of the city, was fumigated, 
eleansed, and whitewashed. Every precaution which the skill of 
the doctors could devise and the authority of the general enforce 
was employed. No one caught the disease. This single case, 
brought from Nassau, was all the yellow fever known in New 
Orleans during the season of 1862. 

It is of the highest importance to the future of Louisiana that the 
means employed by General Butler to preserve the health of the 
city should be known. Sanitary science, as the reader is aware, 
was a familiar subject with him before he began his military career. 
His researches led him to adopt the theory that the yellow fever 
is indigenous in no region where there is frost every winter. There 
is frost every winter in every part of the United States. He, there- 
fore, concluded that the yellow fever is not a disease native to our 
soil, but is always brought from a tropical port. The gulf coasts 
generate, it is true, the malaria which serves as a medium for the 
most calamitous spread of the disease ; but the deadly poison which 
issues in the yellow fever is brought from abroad. The magazine 
is ready, but the foreign spark is indispensable. He relied chiefly, 
therefore, upon a quarantine ; and this he enforced with such rig- 
orous impartiality, that the state department was inundated with 
complaints, reclamations, and protests, and the ear of the public 
was assailed with charges of favoritism and corruption. But he 
never relaxed his clutch upon the throat of the Mississippi. " My 
orders," he wrote on one occasion, " are imperative and distinct to 
my health- officers, to subject all vessels coming from infected ports 
to such a quarentine as shall insure safety from disease. Whether 
one day or one hundred is necessary for the purpose, it will be 
done. It will be done if it is necessary to take the vessel to pieces 
to do it, so long as the United States has the physical power to en- 
force it. 1 have submitted to the judgment of my very competent 
surgeon at the quarantine the question of the length of time and 
the action to be taken to insure safety. I have by no order inter- 
fered with his discretion. If he thinks ten days sufficient in a 
given case, be it so ; if forty in another, be it so ; if one hundred in 
another, it shall be so." 

And so it was, as the volumes of documents unanswerably show. 



400 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 



The consular complaints had at length the usual fortunate effect 
of extorting from General Butler one of those clear and interesting 
statements of fact, of which the reader has already been favored 
with several specimens. In this masterly paper, he gives a history 
of his expedients for keeping away the yellow fever, and replies to 
the numberless accusations of partiality, which had been, and still 
are brought against him. It was the case of the Cardenas, a Span- 
ish ship, plying between Havana and New Orleans, which he was 
requested by the secretary of war to elucidate, and which called 
forth the following important narrative : 

u "When ISTew Orleans was captured," wrote the general, October 1st, "it 
was found in the utmost possible filthy condition, because of the trouble- 
some times. The contractors upon all the streets and canals had utterly 
neglected to comply with their contracts for cleaning and purifying the 
streets, and the filth was indescribable. 

" In view of this most alarming sanitary condition of the city, and the 
approach of the epidemic season, after consultation with the most eminent 
local physicians, who would give advice (some refusing to give any opinion 
with the apparent hope that the pestilence would do what their rebel arms 
could not, drive us out), and acting with the advice of my medical staff, I 
took the most energetic measures to purify the city itself from the possi- 
bility of engendering disease. Believing at the same time that the yellow 
fever was no more indigenous to New Orleans than the sugar cane, but must 
be imparted or propagated as that is by cuttings, and that a firmly admin- 
istered quarantine, guided by science and honesty of purpose, discriminat- 
ing as regards cargoes and cleanliness of ships, would effectually keep out 
the scourge of the city, the prayed for ally of the rebellion, I ordered 
quarantine to be enforced with these discriminations, not ' a procrustean 
period of quarantine to all.' A vessel loaded with hides and wool, the ab- 
sorbants of the malaria, with a filthy hold reeking with dead and putrid 
organic matter, loaded at an infected port with infected hands, sown thick 
with the seeds of disease, only waiting for time and the warm sun to de- 
velop them into a plague, was not put on an equality as to time with a 
steamer for passengers, kept clean and sweet as a mercantile necessity to 
procure business, laden with flour, tight casks of salted provisions and 
round shot and shell, which would not be likely either to absorb or gene- 
rate contagion. 

" Again,, the length of time in which a ship and cargo had been exposed 
to the danger of contagion had much to do with the quarantine. A «ship 
belonging to an infected port, loaded there with the product or the manu- 
facture of tb ^ port, her crew acclimated and therefore indifferent to san- 



geuneral butler axd the foreign consuls. 



401 



itary regulations and appliances, required to be kept under quarantine 
longer, to watch the probable development of disease, and to await the op- 
eration of purification, than a vessel loaded at a northern port, where the 
frost insured health in this regard, and which had merely touched at a port 
afflicted with yellow fever, and held communication with the shore under 
the restriction imposed by the fears of unacclimated officers and crew. 

u These and kindred considerations which will readily suggest themselves 
to your mind, were the controlling guide to the very intelligent medical 
officers who were in charge at quarantine, as they were to my own mind 
upon the necessity and length of detention. We determined, however, to 
err, if at all, upon the safe side, remembering ever the far greater import- 
ance of the lives of a large city and an army committed to our charge, 
than the possible damage to any commercial adventure from detention. 

"I need not assure you, sir, that the question of 'nationality' never en- 
tered into our thought in the exercise of our judgment and power, except 
in one possible relation. 

" We could not help looking with a little less care to, and holding under 
advisement a little less time, a vessel of a nation proverbial for the neatness 
of their ships, as compared with one which enjoyed an unenviable reputa- 
tion the other way. With these theories, and upon these bases, have the 
quarantine and health laws been administered at New Orleans, up to the 
first day of October. 

" I can point with a reasonably justified pride to the results as an explana- 
tion and a vindication of my acts and administration in this particular. 
Pardon me, if I add, that I claim for this triumph of science, integrity, firm- 
ness, and skill of my medical staff 1 , by which thousands of lives have been 
saved, and by far the most dreaded foe driven from the city of New Or- 
leans, as much credit, as if by the disposition of my troops we had won a 
victory over the less deadly but hardly less implacable enemy in a conflict 
of arms. 

" Up to this date, there has been no malignant, or epidemical, or virulent 
fevers or diseases in New Orleans, and its mortality returns show it to be 
the most healthy city in the United States. In one regiment, the Thir- 
teenth Connecticut, a thousand strong, quartered in the Oustom-House 
since the loth of May, but one man was lost during the months of July and 
August. 

" His excellency, Mr. Tarsara, the Spanish minister, is most grievously 
misinformed when he says to the secretary of state, that the salubrity of 
"New Orleans is no better than that of the island of Cuba. 

" Our quarantine has been more perfect than the blockade. We have 
had serious cases of fever at the quarantine, only seventy-five miles from 
us. and but a single one at ISTew Orleans, and this one at once justifies and 
illustrates our sanitary laws. 



402 GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 

"The United States steamship 'Ida,' having only touched at Nassau, and 
no disease having been reported as existing there at the time of her depart- 
ure, was permitted to pass up by the health-officer after fumigation and 
other precautions. The day after her arrival in the city, one of her passen- 
gers on shore was taken sick and on the sixth day died ; an unmistakable 
case of malignant yellow fever. The most strenuous measures were taken 
to isolate the disease. Everything that touched or was about the diseased 
man was buried ; acclimated persons only were allowed to do the last sad 
offices. The house in which he died was most thoroughly purified, and by 
the blessing of ' Him who holdeth all things in the hollow of his hand,' the 
pestilence was stayed. 

" The steamer was ordered at once below, where she is undergoing quar- 
antine. Even while I write this, the English consul reports the British 
brig ' Volunteer' to me at the mouth of the river, out of provisions, her 
officers and crew, including the captain, dead or sick with fever, and prays 
for assistance; and a telegraphic message sends from the quarantine my 
health-officer on board with medical supplies and other aid. 

"I have thus given to the department a full explanation of the com- 
plaints involved in my administration of the quarantine laws. Upon the 
other branches of the inquiry relative to the Spanish steamer ' Cardenas, 1 1 
am most happy to report : 

"As to the Spanish ' Cardenas,' let me observe, that she did not come to 
me in such manner as to demand the highest degree of courtesy or respect. 
The ' Cardenas' left Havana on the 31st of May, after epidemic yellow fever 
had made its appearance, bringing many passengers, a large portion of 
whom were rebels who had been in Havana buying arms and munitions of 
wor for the Confederates, having on board to bring her up the river two 
pilots who had successfully conducted vessels through the blockade. 

" She ran past the forts without stopping, which was permitted because 
she was mistaken for the U. S. steamer ' Connecticut,' then hourly ex- 
pected, which mistake caused the ' Connecticut' to be fired at when she 
made her appearance, and attempted to go by without reporting. 

" The ' Cardenas' then loitered up the river till near night, and without 
coming up to the usual place of landing, or reporting to the harbor-master, 
came alongside a wharf some three miles below the usual places of steam- 
boat landing, and put on shore all her passengers without passports being 
examined, or any report to any person, so that many obnoxious persons 
escaped into the city, and the provost-marshal has never been able to ascer- 
tain the character of all her passengers. 

" "Will it be pretended that any captain of a Spanish steamer is so igno- 
rant as not to know that such conduct is in the highest degree improper in 
landing passengers at a military post. 

" Mr. Tarsara says well, ' that no difficulty was made about landing the 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 403 

passengers from the steamer.' True, because they and their baggage were 
surreptitiously landed miles below the usual landing-place, without the 
knowledge of any person friendly to the United States, but evidently with 
the knowledge of the secessionists, because the captain says, in his protest, 
that 'orowds invaded the vessel as soon as she made the wharf.' 

" She was ordered back to quarantine ; but many frivolous excuses and 
delays were interposed by her officers until a most peremptory order, ac- 
companied by a threat, was given, which she obeyed. 

" After a proper quarantine, the 'Cardenas' came up — not of thirty days, 
but one precisely such as was thought sufficient. I do not understand Mr. 
Tarsara's notions about reciprocity in quarantine. He seems to insist that 
if we require a long quarantine at New Orleans, the governor-general of 
Cuba will require an equally long one at Havana. But what need of quar- 
antines at all against epidemic yellow fever in its most virulent form ? 
What possible reciprocity of quarantine could there be between Iceland and 
Vera Cruz ? I have endeavored to make quarantine a sensible, not a use- 
less regulation. 

" It is complained, however, that the U. S. steamship ' Eoanoke' suffered 
a shorter detention at quarantine than the ' Cardenas,' and that she sailed 
from Havana on the day after. 

" This is an uncandid way of stating the fact. The ' Eoanoke' sailed 
from New York, went into the harbor at Havana, stayed there less than 
twenty-four hours, and held little or no communication with the shore. 
Her captain reported her at the quarantine station as direct from New York. 

" Was there any reason for so long a quarantine for her as for a vessel 
loaded at Havana? 

''When the 'Eoanoke' was about to sail for New York on her return 
from New Orleans, a large number of Spanish persons were desirous of 
taking passage in her for Havana, and engaged passage accordingly. Upon 
application to the Spanish consul for a bill of health, as the purser of the 
' Eoanoke' informed me, the consul or vice-consul told him that as ' I had 
quarantined the ' Cardenas,' the consul would not give the 'Eoanoke' a 
bill of health, but would report that New Orleans was afflicted with epi- 
demic fever unless I would permit the ' Cardenas' to come up, and if so a 
clean bill of health would be given.' 

" The effect of and motive for this conduct was obvious. If the ' Eoan- 
oke' went t> Havana and carried her passengers, she would take away this 
business from the ' Cardenas.' If she carried such a bill of health as to put 
her in quarantine at Havana, no New York passengers would sail in her, 
so that she must lose one or the other lot of passengers. 

" This seemed to me so unjust that I sent for the consul for an explana- 
tion. I understood his explanations to be exactly what the purser of the 
' Eoanoke' informed me had been given him. 



404 



GENERAL BUTLEE AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 



"It is proper here to remark that I have since been assured by the 
Spanish consul, for whom I really entertain high respect, that this conver- 
sation was misunderstood by all parties, neither understanding the other's 
language. 

" I told the consul at that interview, that any retaliation upon the 
' Roanoke' for any supposed wrong done by me to the 1 Cardenas' ought 
not to be, and could not be permitted ; ' that if he slandered the health of 
the city of New Orleans, by giving any report that epidemic yellow fever 
existed here, when he knew it not to be the fact, preventing trade and com- 
merce coming to this port by such false report, that I would certainly send 
him out of the city to Havana, and report his conduct to the captain-gen- 
eral, as the nearest Spanish authority;' and, in that event, this I would 
most assuredly have done. I told him, that the bill of health of the ' Eoan- 
oke' must be such as was required by the laws and his instructions, pre- 
cisely as if nothing had been done to the ' Cardenas.' 

" To this (as he was interpreted to me to say) the consul replied, that he 
would not give a clean bill of health to the 'Roanoke, 1 because it was now 
past the first of June, and whatever might be the health of the city in fact, 
he must report it unhealthy. Farther, that if I still held the ' Cardenas' 
under quarantine, he would write to the captain-general of Cuba, not to 
send any more vessels here. 

" To that I replied, that he should give my compliments to the captain- 
general, and say that, until the yellow fever season was over, he could 
do me and the city no greater favor than to prevent vessels from coming 
here. 

" I then put in writing, and handed the consul my claim, that he should 
give a bill of health to the Roanoke required by the laws and regulations 
of his government, regardless of my treatment of the ' Cardenas.' 

"The interview here ended. The bill of health, however, which was 
given to the Roanoke, was such (although the city was perfectly healthy) 
that her officers did not dare to sail to Havana, lest they should be held to 
quarantine there, in a city where the small-pox and yellow fever were both 
raging. She was in consequence obliged to discharge her Havana passen- 
gers, and pay back the passage money. 

" I take leave here to observe upon a remark o f Mr. Tarsara, the Spanish 
minister, ' that I had not the authority to send out of my lines the Spanish 
consul,' for so gross a dereliction of duty: in the first place, that I shoule* 
have done it, if the occasion had called ; and that secondly, I know of no 
law, national or municipal, that requires the commander of a captured cityi 
occupied as a military post, to keep any person in it, consul or other, who 
is deliberately working to render the place untenable, by keeping away sup- 
plies of provisions from it through false reports. 

" I wish, however, again to repeat, that subsequent conversations, through 



GENEKAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 



405 



a more intelligent interpreter in his understanding of English, has convinced 
me that the consul's remarks were misinterpreted and mistaken by me, as 
mine were by him. These subsequent explanations have, I believe, estab- 
lished the most cordial relations between us. I have also learned that 1 
have done Mr. Callijon an injustice in another respect, in supposing him, as 
I was informed, to be a Spanish merchant. Such I am now convinced is 
not the case ; but that he is a soldier, who has won honorable distinction 
in the wars of his country. 

"In Mr. Tarsara's letter of complaint, it is alleged that I have permitted 
the French brigantine ' Marie Felicia, 1 and the English schooner 'Virginia 
Antoinette,' and other vessels, to come up without the same length of 
quarantine as the ' Cardenas.' These facts, it is said, will convict me of 
capricious discrimination against Spain in favor of other European nations. 
There is no reason given why I should be possessed of feelings which 
would lead me thus to discriminate. Indeed, if I permitted my indignation 
and sense of wrong as regards the manner in which my government has 
been treated by other nations to influence my official action, I assure you 
Spain would not be the nation toward which these feelings would most 
actively operate. On the contrary. I have felt that the conduct of Spain 
has been most friendly, especially taking in view the wrong done her by 
some of the citizens of the United States in the invasion of Cuba. No 
rebel privateers have fitted out from her ports. I have not known that any 
of her islands have been made arsenals and naval depots for the Confed- 
eracy, and I have yet to be informed of any discrimination made by her be- 
tween our armed vessels and those of the enemy. I have ventured to say 
thus much because, in weighing one's acts, motives are specially to be 
looked at. 

"Perhaps, however, the two cases of the 'Marie Felicia' and the 'Vir- 
ginia Antoinette' deserve a word of comment, as they illustrate the animus 
with which our quarantine has been conducted. 

"The 'Marie' having an acclimated crew, having been loaded at Havre, 
and only touched at Havana without landing, was detained only long 
enough to examine her present condition as to health, presuming that she 
contained no latent disease or malaria which develops itself by time. The 
'Virginia' having only touched at Havana, was without passengers, and 
laden wholly with loose salt, a powerful disinfectant itself. One might as 
•veil quarantine a barrel of chloride of lime. And yet permitting this 
schooner to come up after twenty days' absence from the infected port, is 
brought forward as evidence of a 'capricious discrimination against the 
Spanish government.' 

•• Mr. Tarsara, in his communication of the 28th of June, wishes the secre- 
tary to require me ' to treat the consuls of foreign nations with more con- 
sideration ; and that I must refrain from expressions which are not suited to 



406 GENERAL BUTLER AND THE FOREIGN CONSULS. 

give security to trade or maintain friendly relations between the authorities 
of the Island and those of the United States.' 

" It will be seen by examination of the letter of the commander of the 
'Blasco de Garay,' hereto annexed, under date of August 13th, that he 
complains that my acts do not come up to my professions of friendship and 
the courtesies of my language. I have, therefore, appended all of the more 
important of my correspondence with the Spanish authorities here, so that 
the department may see whether, either in the manner or matter of that 
correspondence, there is anything which should be a casus belli between 
two otherwise friendly nations. 

" That I answered somewhat sharply the letter of the captain of the 
'Blasco de Garay,' who seized the occasion in replying to a note, wherein 
I offered him assistance and courtesy, to read me a lecture on my duties, I 
admit. I thought, and still think, I was justified in so doing. 

" A nation may be friendly and its consul quite the reverse, as witness 
the late Prussian consul, who is now a general in the rebel army, for which 
he recruited a battalion of his countrymen. 

" When, therefore, I find a consul aiding the rebels, I must treat him as 
a rebel ; and the exceptions are very few indeed among the consuls here. 
Bound up with the rebels by marriage and social relations, most of the 
consular offices are only asylums where rebels are harbored and rebellion 
fostered. 

" Before I close this report, which pressure of public duties more urgent 
has delayed till the departure of the mail on the 6th of October, allow me 
to repeat that, with the blessing of God, to whom our most devout thanks 
are daily due for His goodness, the fell scourge, the yellow fever, has been 
kept from my command and the city of ISTew Orleans till now, when all 
danger is past, by the firm administration of sanitary and quarantine regu- 
lations, in spite of complaints and difficulties ; and if my acts need it, I 
point to the results as an unanswerable vindication." 

Here, I believe, we may take leave of the consuls for a while. 
As time wore on, they came to understand the altered conditions 
of their tenure of office. They learned that there really was in the 
world such a power as the United States. They changed their opin- 
ion, too, of the man who represented that power in New Orleans ; 
and during the latter half of General Butler's administration, his 
intercourse with them was generally of the most friendly and agree- 
able character. 



EFFORTS TOWARD RESTORATION. 



407 



CHAPTER XXL 

EFFORTS TOWARD RESTORATION. 

To revive the business of New Orleans and cause its stagnant 
life to flow again in its ordinary channels, was among the first 
endeavors of General Butler after reducing the city to order and 
providing for its subsistence. It was necessary, at first, to compel 
the opening of retail stores, by the threat of a fine of a hundred 
dollars a day for keeping them closed. Mechanics refused to work 
for the United States. Certain repairs upon the light steamers, 
essential to the supply of the troops, could only be got done by the 
threat of Fort Jackson. One burly contractor was imprisoned and 
kept upon bread and water till he consented to undertake a piece 
of work of urgent necessity. The cabmen and draymen, as we 
have seen, required to be cajoled or impressed. This state of feel- 
ing, however, soon passed away. It was half affectation, half 
terror — the men only needed such a show of compulsion as would 
serve them as an excuse to their comrades. The ordinary business 
of the city soon went on as it had before the capture. The rail- 
roads were set running as far as the Union lines extended. 

u Will it pay to run it ?" the general would ask. 

"Yes." 

" Then go ahead." 

So the people trafficked, and rode, and passed their days as 
they had been wont to do while under the sway of Mayor Monroe, 
General Lovell, and Mr. Soule. Perfect order generally prevailed. 
The general walked and rode about the city with a single attend- 
ant, by day and by night. A child could have carried a purse in 
its hand from Carrollton to Chalrnette without risk of molestation. 

The commerce of the city could not be revived before the open- 
ing the port. In one of his earliest dispatches, General Butler 
advised that measure, as well as a general amnesty for all past 
political offenses. The planters, however, were distrustful, and 
feared to place their sugar within reach of the Union authorities. 

To remove their apprehensions, the following general order was 
issued : 



408 



EFFORTS TOWARD RESTORATION. 



" New Orleans, May 4, 1862. 
"The commanding general of the department having been informed that 
rebellious, lying and desperate men have represented, and are now repre- 
senting, to the honest planters and good people of the state of Louisiana, 
that the United States government, by its forces, have come here to confis- 
cate and destroy their crops of cotton and sugar, it is hereby ordered to be 
made known, by publication in all the newspapers of this city, that all car- 
goes of cotton and sugar shall receive the safe conduct of the forces of the 
United States, and the boats bringing them from beyond the lines of the 
United States forces, may be allowed to return in safety, after a reasonable 
delay, if their owners so desire ; provided, they bring no passengers except 
the owners and managers of said boat, and of the property so conveyed, and 
no other merchandise except provisions, of which such boats are requested 
to bring a full supply, for the benefit of the poor of this city." 

In anticipation of the opening of the port to northern trade, and 
in order to convince the holders of produce that New Orleans was 
already a safe market, the general determined, at once, to com- 
mence the purchase and exportation of sugar on government ac- 
count. What merchants would call a "brilliant operation" was 
the result of his endeavors. Lying at the levee he had a large 
fleet of transports, which, by the terms of their charters, he was 
bound to send home in ballast. There is no ballast to be had in 
New Orleans at any time, and none nearer than the white sand of 
Ship Island, five days' sail and thirty hours' steam from the city. 
There was sugar enough on the levee to ballast all the vessels, at 
an immense saving to the government, to say nothing of the profit 
to be realized in the sale of the sugar at the North. He determined 
to buy enough sugar for the purpose. 

To show the wisdom of this measure, take the case of the 
steamer Mississippi, hired at the rate of fifteen hundred dollars a 
day. " She must have," explained the general, " two hundred and 
fifty tons of ballast. To go to Ship Island and have sand brought 
alongside in small boats, will take at least ten days ; to discharge the 
same and haul it away, will take four more. Thus, it will cost the 
government twenty-one thousand dollars to ballast and discharge 
the ship with sand, to say nothing of the cost of taking the sand away, 
or the average delays of getting it, if it storms at Ship Island. Now, 
if I can get some merchant to ship four hundred hogsheads of su- 
gar in the Mississippi as ballast, which can be received in tw r o days 



EFFORTS TOWARD RESTORATION. 



40J> 



almost at the wharf where she lies, and discharged in two more, 
the government will save fifteen thousand dollars by the difference, 
even if it gets nothing for freight. But, by employing a party to 
get the ballast, see to its shipment, and take charge of the business, 
as a ship's broker, and agreeing to let him have all he can get over 
a given sum — say five dollars per hogshead for his trouble and ex- 
penses of lading — the government in the case given will save two 
thousand dollars more — four hundred hogsheads, at five dollars — 
say, in all, seventeen thousand dollars." 

It was difficult to start the affair from want of money. The gov- 
ernment had no money then in New Orleans, and the general had 
none. By the pledge of the whole of his private fortune ($150,- 
000), he borrowed of Jacob Barker, the well-known banker, one 
hundred thousand dollars in gold, and with this sum at command, 
he proceeded to purchase. Merchants were also permitted to send 
forward sugar as ballast, on paying to the government a moderate 
freight. The details of this transaction were ably arranged by the 
general's brother, a shrewd and experienced man of business, who 
was allowed a commission for his trouble. The affair succeeded to 
admiration. The ships were all ballasted with 'sugar. The govern- 
ment took the sugar bought by the general's own money, and re- 
paid him the amount expended ; the whole advantage of the oper- 
ation accruing to the United States. The sole result to General But- 
ler was a great deal of trouble, and, at a later period, a great deal 
of calumny. The owners of some of the transports conceived the 
idea that the freight should be paid to them, or at least a part of it. 
General Butler opposed their claims, and the dispute was pro- 
tracted through several months. The captains of the vessels, I am 
told, still rest under the impression that in some mysterious way 
the general gained an immense sum by this export of sugar. Mr. 
Chase knows better. He, if no one else, was abundantly satisfied 
with the transaction. 

Having touched upon the subject of the calumnies so assiduously 
circulated with regard to the administration of General Butler in 
New Orleans, it may-, perhaps, be as well to add here the little that 
remains to be said on that edifying subject. 

First, let me adduce another little operation which has been con- 
strued to his disadvantage. I refer to a small quantity of cotton 
sent home from Ship Island by General Butler, which chanced to 



410 



EFFORTS TOWARD RESTORATION. 



arrive a short time before the papers that explained the' transac- 
tion. 

" This cotton," wrote General Butler to the quartermaster-gen- 
eral, " was captured by the navy on board a small schooner, which 
it would have been unsafe to send to sea. I needed the schooner as 
a lighter, and took her from the navy. What should be done with 
the cotton ? A transport was going home empty — it would cost 
the United States nothing to transport it. To whom should I send 
it ? To my quartermaster at Boston ? But Mupposed him on the 
way here. Owing to the delays of the expedition, I found all the 
quartermaster's men and artisans on the island, whose services were 
indispensable, almost in a state of mutiny for want of pay. There 
was not a dollar of government funds on the island. I had seventy- 
five dollars of my own. The sutler had money he would lend on 
my draft on my private banker. I borrowed on such draft about 
four thousand dollars, quite equal to the value of the cotton as I 
received it, and with the money I paid the government debts to the 
laborers, so that their wives and children would not starve. In 
order that my draft should be paid, I sent the cotton to my cor- 
respondent at Boston, with directions to sell it, pay the draft out 
of the proceeds, and hold the rest, if any, subject to my order ; so 
that, upon the account stated, I might settle w T ith the government. 
What was done ? The government seized the cotton without a 
word of explanation to me, kept it until it had depreciated ten 
per cent., and allowed my draft to be dishonored ; and it had to be 
paid out of the little fund I left at home for the support of my 
children in my absence." 

Subsequent explanations completely satisfied the government, 
and the money was refunded. 

As these two transactions were the only ones of a commercial 
nature in which General Butler engaged while commanding the 
Department of the Gulf, and the only ones, I believe, in which he 
was ever concerned, the reader now has before him the entire basis 
of the huge superstructure of calumny raised by the malign persis- 
tence of rebels and their allies. Both of these transactions were 
solely designed to aid the work in hand, to remove unexpected ob- 
stacles, to anticipate measures which the government must instantly 
have ordered had it been near the scene of action. 

But, as Mr. Toodles remarks, and repeats, " he had a brother " 



EFFORTS TOWARD RESTORATION. 



411 



It is true, he had a brother. He has a brother, alive and flourish 
ing at this moment in New York, enjoying, I trust, the fortune 
gained by him in New Orleans during General Butler's admin 
istration. 

When the port was opened in June, the condition of affairs was 
such that no man in business, with either capital or credit at com- 
mand, could fail to make money with almost unexampled rapidity. 
Turpentine in New Orleans was a drug at three dollars ; in New 
York, it was in demand at thirty-eight. Sugar in New Orleans 
was worth three cents a pound ; in New York, six. Flour, in New 
Y ork, six dollars a barrel ; New Orleans, twenty-four. Dry goods 
in New York were selling at rates not greatly in advance of prices 
before the war ; in New Orleans, every article in the trade was 
scarce and dear. The rates of exchange were such as to afford an 
additional profit of fifteen per cent, on all transactions between the 
two ports. In such a state of affairs, the most useful class of per 
sons are those whom ignorance and envy stigmatize as speculators. 
It is they who quickly restore the commercial equilibrium, who 
raise the value of commodities in one port and reduce it in the 
other, who give New York sugar and turpentine which are useless 
in New Orleans, and supply New Orleans with the means of pro- 
curing commodities essential to comfort and health. The general's 
brother was one of the lucky men who chanced to be in business 
at New Orleans at the critical moment. An able man of business, 
with an experience of thirty years, with considerable capital and 
more credit, he engaged in this lucrative commerce with all the 
means and credit he could command. His gains were large ; not 
as large as those of some other men ; but large enough to satisfy a 
reasonable ambition. He neither had nor needed any advantages 
which were not enjoyed by other merchants. The anomalous state 
of things was his sufficient opportunity. A merchant o* half his 
talent could not have failed to increase his capital with a rapidity 
altogether exceptional. Later in the year, came the confiscations 
of rebel property, with frequent sales at auction of valuable com- 
modities. Of this business, too, he had an ample share — just the 
share his means and talents entitled him to. No more and no less. 

It is impossible to prove a negative. Any one can make a vague 
charge of corruption, but no man can demonstrate it to be false. I 
can, therefore, only say, with reference to these intangible aocusa 
18 



412 



EFFORTS TOWARD RESTORATION. 



tions, that I have now spent the greater part of a year surrounded 
by the papers, printed and manuscript, relating to General Butler's 
administration of the Department of the Gulf; I have become, by 
repeated perusal, as familiar with those papers as a lawyer does with 
the documents of his greatest case ; I have conversed almost daily 
with the gentlemen of stainless name and lineage who were in the 
closest intimacy with him during the whole period of his adminis- 
tration, such as the heroic, lamented Strong, beau-ideal of gentle- 
man and soldier, such as Major Bell, another name for uprightness ; 
T have listened attentively to all who had a tale to tell against Gen- 
eral Butler, and have read the articles adverse to him that have 
appeared in the papers, and tried, in all ways, to get hold of some 
one charge definite enough for investigation ; and the result of all 
this conversation and inquiry has been to produce in my mind 
the utmost possible completeness of conviction that General But- 
ler's administration was as pure as it was able. Everywhere in his 
dispatches I find truth and candor — no suppression, no half-truths, 
nothing designed to convey an impression at variance with the 
truth. I find that men loved him in proportion to their own loy- 
alty and truth. I find his enemies, both there and here, to be ene- 
mies of their country and of human rights. All the testimony, 
including especially that of his foes, points to one conclusion — that 
he was a wise, humane, and honest ruler of a most perverse genera- 
tion. 

Corruption there was in New Orleans, as one notorious in- 
dividual can testify, who found himself in the penitentiary one day, 
sentenced to twenty-one years at hard labor for peculating the 
property of the government. Power was abused in New Orleans, 
as power always is by whomsoever it is wielded. But it was not 
abused with the knowledge or consent of the commanding general, 
nor were the evil-doers shielded by him from the just penalty either 
of crime or of error. His rule in Louisiana was greatly just and 
greatly wise. It was the harsh conflict of two antagonistic civ- 
ilizations, both imperfect, one fatally so. It was the sudden set- 
ting up of the rule of justice in a community which had almost lost 
the tradition of a just rule. It was a bringing of the inflation, the 
arrogance, the meanness, and the falsehood engendered by slavery, 
to the test of Yankee common sense and Yankee common law. 
From such a conflict there must needs arise a great outcry. Some- 



EFFORTS TOWARD RESTORATION. 



413 



body must be hurt. Every creature that is hurt, cries out in the 
language natural to it. The natural language of an " original 
secessionist," damaged in a conflict with justice and good sense, and, 
at the same time, deprived of bowie-knife and pistol, is calumny of 
the man by whom that justice and good sense are brought to bear 
upon his pretensions. Falsehood is the element in which those 
unhappy people live, move, and have their being. 

Every honest man who served under General Butler at New 
Orleans, and was in a position to observe his conduct, would, I be- 
lieve, most heartily subscribe to the language employed by Colonel 
S. H. Stafford (1st La. N. G.), when refuting one of the vague, in- 
coherent slanders to which I have referred. Colonel Stafford was 
deputy provost-marshal of New Orleans, but acted independently 
of his. chief, and communicated directly with the general. " In 
all my intercourse with General Butler," he writes, " which, in my 
position, was to a great extent confidential, I am bound to say, that 
I never saw anything that was not upright, faithful, and honest ; 
and had he been corrupt, I believe I would have seen the signs of 
it. I am proud to have served under him, and devoutly wish he 
was still my commander. I believe that any man that ever served 
under him, who does not feel the £ame, is influenced in his feeling 
and opinion by what he may himself have suffered under the inflic- 
tion of some just condemnation." 

But to resume. In one particular, General Butler's designs with 
regard to the commerce of New Orleans were baffled. He could 
not get cotton in any considerable quantity, although it was a con- 
stant object of his endeavors. The reason, as given him by well- 
informed Louisianians, was this : About one-half of the planters had 
burned their cotton, and these men would not permit their less 
enthusiastic neighbors to reap the advantage of their prudence. A 
little cotton was procured from Mobile, by exchanging one bale 
of cotton for one sack of salt, and a little more was brought from 
Texas by special arrangement. It can not be said, however, that 
the world's supply of this commodity was much increased by the 
capture of New Orleans. Perhaps, two or three thousand bales 
may have been procured in all. 

The currency of New Orleans was in a condition deplorably 
chaotic. Omnibus tickets, car tickets, shinplasters and Confederate 
notes, the last named depreciated seventy per cent, by the fall 



414 



EFFORTS TOWARD RESTORATION. 



of the city, were the chief medium of exchange. The coin had 
been removed from the vaults of the banks to a place within the 
Confederate lines, except that part of it which was deposited 
in the consulates. In compliance with the entreaties of Mr. Soule, 
and with the obvious necessities of the situation, General Butler 
had permitted the temporary circulation of Confederate notes ; but 
as this concession was known to be but temporary, it did not ma- 
terially enhance the value of that spurious currency. The banks 
had been growing rich upon the traffic in Confederate paper, 
bought at a discount, paid out at par. When most other invest- 
ments were unproductive, bank shares had yielded large dividends. 
Until September, 1861, as many readers remember, the banks of 
New Orleans had held aloof from the practical support of the Con- 
federacy, had refused to suspend specie payments, and had trans- 
acted only a legitimate business. At that time, however, a threat 
of " harsh measures" from the Richmond government gave to some 
of the banks the pretext which they coveted for abandoning the 
honest course, and the rest were compelled to follow the bad exam- 
ple. Thenceforward, business in Louisiana was done in Confede- 
rate notes, and the paper of the banks was Uttle seen in circulation. 
The consequences of the sudde*n depreciation of those notes may 
be readily imagined. As the offer of the city to redeem the notes 
was not fulfilled, they remained almost the sole medium of exchange 
in the hands of the people. 

Such a state of things obviously demanded the prompt interfe- 
rence of the commanding general. The series of bold, original and 
masterly measures by which General Butler, in the course of a few 
weeks, gave to New Orleans a currency as sound and convenient 
as that of New York and Boston, merits the reader's particular 
attention. 

There was one redeeming fact in the financial condition of the 
city to serve as a fulcrum to the general's lever. Most of the banks 
(all of them but three) were solvent and strong. True, their coin 
was gone, but it was not supposed to be lost. Granting the coin 
to be safe, the banks were able to redeem their circulation, and 
safely afford the city the currency it needed. It required all the 
general's intimate knowledge of banking, and all the force of his 
will, to bring the banks to perform this duty ; but after a struggle 
against manifest destiny, they all submitted. 



EFFORTS TOWARD RESTORATION. 



415 



The banks, I may premise, were anxious respecting the safety of 
their coin. After a conference with the general on the subject, an 
important favor was asked him in writing by two gentlemen repre- 
senting the banking interest. " We understood you to say," wrote 
these gentlemen, May 13th, " that you were disposed to reaffirm 
the declaration made in your first proclamation, that private prop- 
erty of all kinds should be respected. You added that if the treas- 
ure withdrawn by the banks should be restored to their vaults, 
you would not only abstain from interference, but that you would 
give it safe conduct, and use all your power individually, as well as of 
the forces of the United States under your command, for its protec- 
tion ; that the question as to the proper time of the resumption of 
specie payments should be left entirely to the judgment and discre- 
tion of the banks themselves, with the understanding on your part 
and ours that the coin should be held in good faith for the protec- 
tion of the bill-holders and depositors. On their part the banks 
promised to act with scrupulous good faith to carry out their un- 
derstanding with you ; that is, to restore a sound currency as soon 
as possible, and to provide for the resumption of regular business 
as soon as the exigencies of our trade require it. You are aware 
that a large portion of the coin of the banks is beyond their control, 
and that we can only promise to use our best exertions for its re- 
turn. Should we fail, we will immediately advise you of the fact. 
In the mean time, we request of you the favor to give us the author- 
ity to bring back the treasure within your lines, with the safe con- 
duct of the same from that point to this city." 

The general's reply was as follows : 

u Head-quartees, Department of the Gtjup, 
" New Orleans, May 14, 1862. 

"Messieurs: — I have given very careful consideration to the matter of 
the communication handed me through you from the banks of the city. 
With a slight variation, to which I call your attention, you were correct in 
your understanding of the interview had by me with the banks. Specie or 
bullion in coin or ingots, is entitled to the same protection as other property 
under the same uses, and will be so protected by the United States foraes 
under my command. 

" If, therefore, the banks bring back their specie which they have so un- 
advisedly carried away, it shall have safe conduct through my lines, and be 
fully protected here so long as it is used in good faith to make good the ob- 
ligations of the banks to their creditors by bills and deposit. 



41fi 



EFFORTS TOWARD RESTORATION . 



"Now, as in the present disturbed state of the pnblic mind, specie, if 
paid out, would be at once hoarded, I am content to leave the time of re 
deinption of their bills to the good judgment of the banks themselves, gov- 
erned in it by the analogy of the laws of the state and the fullest good faith. 
Indeed, the exercise of that on both sides relieves every difficulty, and ends 
at once all negotiations. 

" In order that there may be no misunderstanding, it must be observed 
that I by no means mean to pledge myself that the banks, like other per- 
sons, shall not return to the United States authorities all the property of 
the United States which they may have received. I come to retake, repos- 
sess, and occupy, all and singular, the property of the United States of what- 
ever name and nature. Farther than that I shall not go, save upon the 
most urgent military necessity, unde** which right every citizen holds all 
his possessions. But as any claim which the United States may have 
against the banks can easily be enforced against the personal as well as the 
property of the corporations, such claims need not enter into this discus- 
sion in such form. Therefore, as in good faith safe conducts may be need- 
ed for agents of banks to go and return with the property, and for no other 
purpose whatever, such safe conducts will be granted for a limited but rea- 
sonable period of time. 

"Personal illness 1 has caused the slight delay which has attended this 
reply. I have the honor to be, your most obedient servant, 

" (Signed), Benj. F. Butler, Major- General Commanding. 

" Messieurs William N". Mercer, J. M. Lepatee, Committee. 1 '' 

~No safe conducts were required for the treasure. Memminger, 
the secretary of the rebel treasury, refused to give it up. " The 
coin of the banks of New Orleans," he wrote, July 6th, " was 
seized by the government to prevent it falling into the hands of the 
public enemy. It has been deposited in a place of security, under 
charge of the government ; and it is not intended to interfere with 
the rights of property in the banks farther than to insure its safe 
custody. They may proceed to conduct their business in the Con- 
federate States upon this deposit, just as though it were in their 
own vaults." 

The banks then endeavored to get both governments to consent 
to their sending the coin to Europe during the war ; and General 
Butler rather favored the scheme, provided a European government 
would take it in charge. The plan failed, however, to gain appro- 
val ; and the general consented to permit the banks to do business 
upon the basis of the absent coin, "just as though it was in their 



EFFORTS TOWARD RESTORATION. 



417 



own vaults." Unless he had done this, his whole scheme of reform- 
ing the currency must have failed. 

General Butler's first financial measure was to suppress the Con- 
federate notes. At the beginning of the third week of the occupa- 
tion of the city, the following general order appeared : — 

" New Oeleans, May 16, 1862. 
"I. It is hereby ordered that neither the city of New Orleans, nor the 
banks thereof, exchange their notes, bills, or obligations for Confederate 
notes, bills, or bonds, nor issue any bill, note, or obligation payable in Con- 
federate notes. 

"II. On the 27th day of May inst., all circulation of, or trade in, Con- 
federate notes and bills will cease within this department ; and all sales or 
transfers of property made on or after that day, in consideration of such 
notes or bills, directly or indirectly, will be void, and the property confis- 
cated to the United States, one-fourth thereof to go to the informer." 

Great was the agitation in bank parties upon the day this order 
was promulgated. At once the question arose, Who is to bear the 
loss, the banks or the public? The banks had no doubts upon 
the subject. The newspapers of the next morning contained a long 
string of short advertisements, which agreeably diversified the 
usual uniformity of the advertising columns. The following may 
serve as specimens : 

" All parties having deposits of Confederate notes with us are hereby 
notified to withdraw them prior to the 27th inst. Such balances as may not 
be withdrawn will be considered at the risk of the owners, and held sub- 
ject to their order." 

" Judson & Co., corner of Camp and Canal streets." 

" Banking- House of Sam'l Smith & Co., 
"New Okleakts, May 19, 1862. 
" All persons having deposited Confederate notes in this banking-house 
are notified to withdraw them before the 27th inst. Such balances as may 
not then be withdrawn will be considered at the risk of the owners." 

" Sam'l Smith & Co." 

" Bank of Ameeioa, 
"New Orleans, May 19, 1862. 
4i All persons having deposits of Confederate notes in this bank are noti- 



418 



EFFORTS TOWARD RESTORATION. 



fied to withdraw them by the 25th inst. Such balances as may not then be 
withdrawn will be considered at the risk of the owners. 

u 0. Cavaeoo, Cashier pro tern." 

"Meech ants' Bank, 
"New Oeleans, May 19, 1862. 
" This bank is prepared to pay balances in Confederate notes, which must 
be drawn before the 27th inst. 

u ¥m S. Mount, Cashier." 

" Union Bank of Louisiana, 
" New Oeleans, May 17, 1862. 
" Notice. — All persons having deposits of Confederate notes in this bank 
are notified to withdraw them prior to the 27th inst. Such balances as may 
not be withdrawn will be considered at the risk of the owners. 

" Geo. A. Feeeet, Cashier." 

The banks, therefore, were resolved to throw the entire mass of 
the Confederate currency upon the impoverished people. They had 
introduced that currency, grown rich upon it, received it at par ; 
and now, when it was nearly worthless, they designed to escape 
the entire loss of the depreciation. Every one outside of the banks 
was in consternation. The people knew not what to do. If they with- 
drew their deposits, they would receive sundry pieces of valueless 
printed paper. If they did not, the deposits were " at their own 
risk" — a phrase of fearful import at such a time. What rendered 
the course of the banks the more exasperating was the fact, that a 
great and wealthy corporation, professing an entire faith in the ulti- 
mate triumph of the Confederacy, could afford to hold Confederate 
paper, while a poor trader in New Orleans would be ruined by 
the suspension of his little capital. 

The anger of General Butler was kindled. JSe, the " enemy," 
was striving night and day to save the people of New Orleans from 
starvation, and restore the business of the city to life. They, the 
fellow-citizens of those people, thought only of saving their ill- 
gotten wealth. In the course of the day upon which the bank 
advertisements appeared, he penned his famous General Order 
No. 30, which was published in the papers of the following 
morning : 



EFFORTS TOWARD RESTORATION. 



419 



"New Orleans, May 19, 1862. 

u It is represented to the commanding general that great distress, priva- 
tion, suffering, hunger and even starvation has been brought upon the peo- 
ple of New Orleans and vicinage by the course taken by the banks and 
dealers in currency. 

" He has been urged to take measures to provide, as far as may be, for 
the relief of the citizens, so that the loss may fall, in part, at least, on those 
whG have caused and ought to bear it. 

" The general sees with regret that the banks and bankers causelessly 
suspended specie payments in September last, in contravention of the laws 
of the state and of the United States. Having done so, they introduced 
Confederate notes as currency, which they bought at a discount, in place 
of their own bills, receiving them on deposit, paying them out for their dis- 
counts, and collecting their customers' notes and drafts in them as money, 
sometimes even against their will, thus giving these notes credit and a wide 
general circulation, so that they were substituted in the hands of the mid- 
dling men, the poor and unwary, as currency, in place of that provided by 
the constitution and laws of the country, or of any valuable equivalent. 

" The banks and bankers now endeavor to take advantage of the re-estab- 
lishment of the authority of the United States here, to throw the deprecia- 
tion and loss from this worthless stuff of their creation and fostering upon 
their creditors, depositors and bill-holders. 

"They refuse to receive these bills while they pay them over their coun- 
ters. 

" They require their depositors to take them. 

"They change the obligation of contracts by stamping their bills, 're- 
deemable in Confederate notes.' 

" They have invested the savings of labor and the pittance of the widow 
in this paper. 

" They sent away or hid their specie, so that the people could have noth- 
ing but these notes, which they now depreciate — with which to buy bread. 

"All other property has become nearly valueless from the calamities of 
this iniquitous and unjust war begun by rebellious guns, turned on the flag 
of our prosperous and happy country floating over Fort Sumter. Saved 
'rom the general ruin by the system of financiering, bank stocks alone are 
low selling at great premiums in the market, while the stockholders have 
received large dividends. 

" To equalize, as far as may be, this general loss ; to have it fall, at least 
in part, where it ought to lie ; to enable the people of this city and vicinage 
to have a currency which shall at least be a semblance to that which the 
wisdom of the constitution provides for all citizens of the United States, it 
is therefore 

" Ordered : 1. That the several incorporated banks pay out no more Con- 
18* 



420 



EFFORTS TOWARD RESTORATION. 



federate notes to their depositors or creditors, but that all deposits be paid 
in the bills of the bank, United States treasury notes, gold or silver. 

"II. That all private bankers, receiving deposits, pay out to their deposi- 
tors only the current bills of city banks, or United States treasury notes, 
gold or silver. 

• l III. That the savings banks pay to their depositors or creditors only 
gold, silver, or United States treasury notes, current bills of city banks, or 
their own bills, to an amount not exceeding one-third of their deposits, and 
of denomination not less than one dollar, which they are authorized to issue 
and for the redemption of which their assets shall be held liable. 

"IV. The incorporated banks are authorized to issue bills of a less de- 
nomination than five dollars, but not less than one dollar, anything in their 
charters to the contrary notwithstanding, and are authorized to receive Con- 
federate notes for any of their bills until the 27th day of May inst. 

" V. That all persons and firms having issued small notes or k shinplas- 
ters,' so called, are required to redeem them on presentation at their places 
of business, between the hours of 9. a. m. and 3 p. m., either in gold, silver, 
United States treasury notes, or current bills of city banks, under penalty 
of confiscation of their property and sale thereof, for the purpose of redemp- 
tion of the notes so issued, or imprisonment for a term of hard labor. 

"VI. Private bankers may issue notes of denominations not less than one 
nor more than ten dollars, to two -thirds of the amount of specie which they 
show to a commissioner appointed from these head-quarters, in their vaults, 
actually kept there for the purpose of redemption of such notes." 

So the game of the banks was " blocked." The relief afforded 
to the people by the publication of this order was such, that, as a 
secessionist remarked to one of the general's staff, it was equivalent 
to a reinforcement of twenty thousand men to the Union army. 
Union men in New Orleans say, that nothing but the continual 
bad news from General McClellan's army in the peninsula pre- 
vented this measure from causing an open and general manifesta- 
tion of Union feeling among the respectable traders of the city. 
But the impression could not be removed from the minds of the 
people, while such intelligence kept coming, that the stay of the 
army would be but short ; and every man feared to commit him- 
self to a course that would invite the vengeance of the returning 
Confederates. 

All the banks submitted in silence, except one — the Bank of 
Louisiana. I think I must afford space for the following curious 
correspondence that passed between that institution and General 
Butler : 



EFFORTS TOWARD RESTORATION. 



421 



THE BANK TO GENERAL BUTLER. 

"No. 148 Canal Street, May 21, 1862. 

" Sie : — The Board of Directors of the Bank of Louisiana held a special 
meeting this morning, in order to take into consideration your Order No. 
30. The meeting was full, with the exception of a single member; for all 
were impressed with the gravity of the question about to be submitted. 

•'The result of their deliberation was the adoption of certain resolutions, 
which I have now the honor to submit to you. 

" At the same time I was instructed to make a few observations in ex- 
planation of their course, and especially to disclaim and disavow the justice 
of any imputation affecting their rectitude, integrity or honor. As a proof 
of their confidence in their disinterestedness, they invite the most searching 
examination of all their books, including the minutes of their proceedings, 
and of every act of their administration, even their private accounts with 
the bank, by any competent person whom you may select for that purpose ; 
and they are willing to abide the result, either as officials or as individuals. 

" In the discharge of their difficult and delicate duties, knowing and feel 
ing that their intentions were pure and upright, they have an abiding con- 
fidence of their exculpation from the influence of all sordid or selfish 
motives. 

"If required, I will wait on you and afford every explanation in my 
power. 

" I have the honor, &c, &c, 

" W. Newton Meeoee, President pro tern. 
" Major-General Butler, U. S. A., &c. 

" Note. — Of the capital stock of the bank — 28,000 shares — the director's 
own about one-tenth. To the bank they owe nothing." 

resolutions of the directors. 

"Bane of Louisiana, May 21, 1862. 
" As this bank is unable to comply with the conditions, and act under the 
restrictions imposed upon it by Order No. 30, issued by General Butler, and 
as imputations have been cast upon the conduct and characters of its di- 
rectors, 

"Therefore, Resolved, unanimously, That General Butler be invited to 
appoint some competent person, in whom he has confidence, to examine 
thoroughly the condition of this bank since its suspension of specie pay- 
ments, as well as the action of its directors since the 1st day of September 
last. 

" That the cashier be instructed to give to General Butler's agent, if one 
be appointed, every facility for such an examination of all its books, papers 



422 



EFFORTS TOWARD RESTORATION. 



vaults, desks and drawers, and to afford him every information touching 
the administration of this bank during the period already mentioned, to- 
gether with an inspection of the private accounts of the directors. 

" That, in the mean time, till General Butler's final determination be as- 
certained, the operations of the bank must necessarily be suspended, as it 
has in its possession none of its own issue and only a very small amount 
of coin. 

" I certify that the action above mentioned was held this morning by 
the Bank of Louisiana. 

"W. Newton Meeoee, President pro tern. 
"New Oeleans, May 21, 1862." 

geneeal btjtlee to the bank. 

Head-quaetees, Department of the Gtjlf, 
"New Oeleans, May 22, 1862. 
" W. Newton Meeoee, Esq., President of the Bank of Louisiana : 

" Sie :— I have received your communication, covering the unanimous 
action of the directors of the Bank of Louisiana. To their request, that 1 
would appoint a commission to examine the affairs of the bank, I can not 
accede. With the mismanagement, or the contrary of the bank, I have 
nothing to do, except so far as either affects the interest of the United 
States. 

" The assigned reason for the call for this examination, that ' the integ- 
rity and good faith of the directors have been impugned,' will not move 
me, if it refer to General Order No. 30, which speaks of acts and facts, not 
motives. 

" Your note says, that the directors own but one-tenth of the capital 
stock of the bank. "Without consulting the owners of the other nine-tenths— 
nearly three millions of dollars — this oue-tenth took this immense wealth 
from its legal place of deposit, and sent it flying over the country in company 
with fugitive property burners, among the masses of a disorganized, retreat- 
ing, and starving army, whence it is more than likely never to return. 
Again ; the time it would take to make an investigation, which would show 
the good management, to say nothing of the purity of motive of such a trans- 
action, can not be spared by any officer of my command. Ex uno disce 
omnes. 

" The directors of the bank of Louisiana have all seen General Order No. 
30, and have acted upon it as a corporation. So your note shows. 

" They will dow advise themselves whether they will act in accordance 
with its requirements upon their corporate and individual peril, and inform 
me, within six hours after the receipt of this, of their determination. 

"I have the honor to be, respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"B. F. Butler." 



EFFORTS TOWARD RESTORATION. 



423 



the bank to geneeal butlee. 

"Bank of Louisiana, 
" New Oeleans, May 22, 1862. 
" To Major-General B. F. Butlee, Commanding Department of the Gulf : — 

"Sie: — I have received your communication of this day in answer to my 
tetter accompanying the proceedings of the directors of this bank. 

" The board of directors were immediately summoned to a special meet- 
ing ; and as you leave no alternative but compliance with your mandate, 
they will conform to Order No. 30. 

" Kespectfully, your obedient servant, 

""W. Newton Meeoee, President pro tern." 

The bank, however, was still disposed to be contumacious. Mr. 
Durand had deposited in the bank Confederate notes, when Con- 
federate notes were money y he demanded the amount of his de- 
posit in something that was money then — the notes of the bank, 
for example. The bank, " to make a case," refused, and Mr. Du- 
rand brought suit in the provost court, where Major Bell decided 
in his favor, and ordered the bank to comply with his demand. 
The bank appealed from this decision to the general commanding, 
who sustained the judgment of the court. Law papers are noS 
generally considered to be very entertaining ; but General Butler's 
decision in this case will be found an exception to the rule : 

" Head-quaetees, Depaetment of the Gulf, 
" New Oeleans, La., June, 1862. 

" In the matter of the appeal of W. N. Mercer, president, and Auguste 
Montreuil, cashier, of the Bank of Louisiana, defendants, from the judg- 
ment of the provost court, upon the complaint of A. Durand, complainant. 

u This is an application by the defendants representing the bank, made 
to the general commanding, asking him to revise and set aside the judg- 
ment of the provost court, made in favor of the plaintiff, Durand. 

" It is based upon the legal theory, that over all matters within garrison, 
camp, and perhaps geographical military department, wherein martial 
law has been declared, the power of the commanding general is absolute ; 
and that, looking at him as the representative of the martial power of the 
government here, all applications for redress must be made when any 
wrong is supposed to have been done. 

" This view being sound, so far as I can see, I have, with the best thought 
possible under the circumstances, re-examined the case and the reasons as- 
signed for the appeal. 

" Error is claimed on two grounds : first, that the provost court had no 



424 



EFFORTS TOWARD RESTORATION. 



jurisdiction of the cause ; and second, that the judgment was not in accord* 
ance with the law which should govern its decision. 

" The argument assumes that law to be General Order No. 30, and does 
not dispute the authority which made or the effect of that order, hut con- 
tents itself with endeavoring to construe the order. 

" The objection to the jurisdiction of the court is put upon two grounds : 
first, that the provost court has not jurisdiction of the subject-matter; sec- 
ond, that the proper parties were not before it, so as to enable it to act 
with regard to the rights of those who were not summoned in the case. 

" It is said that this question, being one of a right of property, cannot be 
entertained by a court which only acts to punish the infractions of military 
orders and police regulations. 

u A technical answer to this objection, which is in the nature of a plea 
to the jurisdiction, would be that it does not appear that this plea was put 
in till after the hearing upon the merits. It is a familiar rule that a party 
shall not be allowed to go into court and have a hearing on his case, take 
the chances of a decision in his favor, and then, if adverse, repudiate the 
court before which he has appeared, and to whose judgment he has sub- 
mitted his cause. This rule has been held very strictly, both as to jurisdic- 
tion over the subject-matter and the parties. But in a court where nc 
technical rules are allowed to work injustice, a technical answer is not suf 
ficient. 

" Of what, then, do the defendants complain ? The bank says the court 
has made an order which takes away the property of the bank, and gives it 
to another, and that the court has no power so to act. But is that so ? Is 
it not the commanding general's order which does that of which complaint 
is made ? The bank nowhere complains that the general has not the pow- 
er to make such an order, if in his judgment it become a military necessity 
and that some order on the subject-matter was so, is shown by the fac 
that the first question put to him, upon entering the city, was — what cur- 
rency would be provided for the people, to save them from starvation and 
bread-riots ? It has passed into history that he permitted a vicious currency 
as a medium of circulation for the purpose of meeting this exigency. 

" Again, it will be remembered that the bank now claims that it is ex- 
empted from the effects of this order, because, by order of another military 
commander in September last (there was no civil law for it), it was obliged 
to suspend specie payment, against its will, and substitute Confederate notes 
for its daily currency, instead of its own bills. This order was submitted 
to, if not with joy, at least not under protest, so far as I am informed. 

" The order, as well as the law of the land, then, is that the bank shall 
pay its depositors in gold, silver coin, and United States treasury notes, or 
its own bills. A citizen complains that this order of the commanding 
general has not been obeyed, to his prejudice. 



EFFORTS TOWARD RESTORATION. 



425 



"For what, then, is a provost court, in military phrase, constituted? 
Confessedly, to inquire into, determine, and punish the infraction of mili- 
tary orders. 

" To do this, the court must act in rem as well as in personam. A famil- 
iar example would be, if the commanding general orders all arms to be 
given up, and some citizen neglects or refuses to obey, would it not be 
within the jurisdiction of a provost court, although its judgment should act 
upon a right of property involving millions of dollars' worth of muskets ? 

" If the act brought before the court, therefore, is alleged to be an in- 
fraction of a military order, it is determinable in a military court. Again, 
it is said that the court has not jurisdiction because the stockholders of the 
bank were not summoned in and made parties, and that their rights and 
interests will be affected by the decision. This is all true. But did the 
learned counsel for the bank ever hear of a suit against a bank, in any 
court, where the stockholders were summoned in, unless it was sought to 
charge them individually, which is not the case here ? A corporation acts 
through its authorized agents, and is bound by their acts, and is to be 
charged upon notice to them. This objection of want of sufficient power 
in the president and directors of the Bank of Louisiana to pay the deposit 
of Mr. Durand in their own bills, which is only changing the form of in- 
debtedness from a depositor to a bill-holder, under the order of the provost 
court, without the consent of their stockholders, would provoke a smile in 
a less serious discussion, when we remember that this same board of direc- 
tors, without asking leave of their stockholders, against law and right, put 
three million dollars of its bullion out of their hands and out of the state, 
whence they will probably never see it again. 

" I am of opinion that these objections to the jurisdiction of the court 
are untenable. 

" The other objection, as to the merits of the decision, can, it seems to 
me, be disposed of in a word. If the order is a proper one, it must be 
obeyed. Its propriety can not be discussed by me. It is admitted that 
Durand is a depositor in the bank of what the bank chose to take as 
money — treated as money — credited to him as money — nay, forced upon 
the community as money. He has not been paid his deposit. The bank 
should pay him in specie. The decision, following the letter of the order, 
is that the bank may give him their own bills instead of money. Of that 
decision the bank has no cause to complain. Durand is now the creditor 
of the bank as a depositor. The decision makes him their creditor as a 
~bill-holder. In equity they have nothing to complain of — he may have, 
because he does not get his gold, to which by the laws of banking, laws of 
the state and the United States, he is entitled. 

" He does not seek to reverse the decision. Let it stand. 

" Benj. F. Btjtlee, Major- General Commanding" 



426 



EFFORTS TOWARD RESTORATION. 



Confederate notes disappeared from circulation. Bank-notes 
and green-backs took their place. A few weeks later, the omnibus* 
tickets and shinplasters were replaced by small notes issued by 
Governor Shepley and the city government. Thus, the currency 
if the city was completely restored. 

General Butler required from the banks a monthly report of 
their transactions and their condition. Two of them, which he 
ascertained to be hopelessly insolvent, he ordered to be closed and 
to go into liquidation. Another, which was weak, he caused to be 
strengthened. His later intercourse with the officers of the banks 
was more amicable than at first. They were surprised to find that 
a major-general of volunteers was as much at home in their own 
province as if he had spent his life in a banking-house. 

An anecdote from the Delta will serve to show how the general's 
order secured the rights of enemies as well as friends : 

"Among the rebel prisoners' taken the other day was an officer, 
whom we shall call Captain Johnson. He, before going to the w^r, 
had deposited three hundred dollars in the Bank of Commerce. 
Upon his return to the city upon parole, he called at the bank to 
inquire about his funds. After much fumbling, it was admitted 
that he had deposited the sum named. 

" ' Well,' said he, ' I want it.' 

* * "Thereupon he was reminded that he had made his deposit 
in Confederate notes. 

" ' Very true,' he replied, ' but at that time Confederate notes 
were current and valuable.' 

" ' Oh,' muttered the banker, ' I must give it to you in the cur- 
rency in which you deposited.' 

" 'But,' said the captain, 'Confederate notes are worthless now.' 

" The banker was firm, and the captain retired. He called the 
next day and renewed his demand for his money. He was told, as 
before, that he must take Confederate notes. 

" ' I suppose I must,' observed the Confederate captain. 

" The banker paused, and then inquired : ' But what can you do 
with Confederate notes ? They are worthless here, and it is against 
the law to pass them.' 

" ' That's just what I have been telling you,' said the captain ; 
but since you will not give me anything else, I presume I had 
better take Confederate notes.' 



EFFORTS TOWARD RESTORATION. 



42'i 



" ' Yes, yes, yes, yes,' nervously spluttered the banker ; ' but 
what can you do with Confederate notes ?' 

" 1 Well,' replied Johnson, ' I will tell you squarely what I will 
do. I will take them to General Butler and try to get gold for 
them.' 

" Upon this, the banker counted out three hundred dollars in 
United States treasury notes, and Captain Johnson retired." 

Some stern retributory measures remained to be enforced against 
the banks of New Orleans. The following general order was is- 
sued early in June : 

"New Oeleans, June 6, 1862. 
"Any person who has in his possession, or subject to his control, any 
property of any kind or description whatever, of the so-called Confederate 
States, or who has secreted or concealed, or aided in the concealment of 
such property, who shall not, within three days from the publication of this 
order, give full information of the same, in writing, at the head-quarters of 
the military commandant, in the Custom-House, to the assistant military 
commandant, Godfrey Weitzei. shall be liable to imprisonment and to have 
his property confiscated." 

This order, being interpreted, signified (among other things), that 
whatever sums of money might be standing upon the books of the 
banks in the name of the rebel government, were now the property of 
the United States ; which property the banks would please prepare 
to surrender. The order was promptly obeyed. That this measure 
may be completely understood, I will present here the response of 
one of the banks to the order, and the general's characteristic reply 
to the same. 

the citizens' bank to genebal btjtlee. 

"Citizens' Bank of Louisiana, 
"New Obleans, June 11, 1862. 
" Major-G-eneral B. F. Butlee, commanding at New Orleans : 

" Geneeal : — In obedience to your General Order No. 40, I beg to inform 
you that on the first of May last, there was to the credit of the treasurer 
of the Confederate States in this bank the sum of $219,090.94 ; and also on 
special account the farther sum of $12,465 ; andtthis bank holding a larger 
amount in the notes of the Confederate treasury, an equivalent amount in 
said treasury notes has been set aside, and is now held by the bank, to offset 
the above stated amount, and which notes I will return as the property of 
the Confederate States under your order. 



428 



EFFORTS TOWARD RESTORATION. 



" Also, one small tin box, marked ' Conf. States District Court.' 
" The following named parties have also to their credit on deposit these 
sums, viz : 



J. M. Huger, Confederate States Receiver, $106,812.60 

G. W. Ward, " " " 72,084.90 

J. C. Manning, " " " 1,120.00 

Major M. L. Smith, " " " 16,026.52 

Major Macklin, " " u 6,814.57 

Major Reichard, " " " 476.30 



" As the deposits by the receivers were made in this bank by virtue of 
an order of the Confederate court, in accordance with the act of congress, 
they were to that extent compulsory on the receivers as well as on the 
banks. To have refused to comply with the mandate of that court, might 
have brought both parties into conflict with the constituted authorities for 
the time being. 

" All the above-mentioned deposits were made in the currency of the 
Confederate government by its appointed officers. 

" Had the bank resumed specie payment or become bankrupt in the mean 
time, those depositors would have had no claim to the coin or to. a pro rata 
distribution of the other assets of the bank. They could only have claimed 
the currency deposited by them, and hence it may be classed in reality as 
special deposits of Confederate funds, payable in same, in accordance with 
the contracts and understanding at the time. Under these circumstances, 
the bank appeals to General Butler's sense of equity and justice to allow 
these deposits to be paid to whom it may concern in the same currency in 
which they were received. 

" Some time during the month of November last, an order of sequestra- 
tion was issued to the marshals of the Confederate States to take charge of 
the assets of the Bank of Kentucky, then held by this Bank in the usual 
course of business. 

"The assets have never been removed from the bank, yet still are nomi- 
nally beyond its control. 

"I therefore respectfully request from the commanding general an 
order to refund to the Kentucky bank, the owners of said assets, that 
the accounts may be made out accordingly and a due return forwarded to 
them. 

" The banks were informed of the seizure of their assets at the time, 
and one of them, the Bank of Kentucky, had a resident agent here at that 
time. 

" "With great respect, 

" Your obedient servant, 

"James D. Denegee, President." 



EFFORTS TOWAED RESTORATION. 



429 



genebal btjtlee to the citizexs' bank. 

" Head-quaeteks, Depaetment of the Gulf, 
"New Oeleans, June IMh, 1862. 
"The return of the Citizens' Bank of New Orleans to General Order 
No. 40, has been carefully examined, and the various claims set up by the 
bank to the funds in its hands weighed. 

" The report finds that there is to the credit of the Confederate States 
8219,090.94. 

" This of course is due in presenti from the bank. The bank claims that 
it holds an equal amount of Confederate treasury notes, and desires to set 
off these notes against the amount so due and payable. 

k * This can not be permitted. Many answers might be suggested to the 
claim. One or two are sufficient. 

" Confederate States treasury notes are not due till six months after the 
conclusion of a treaty of peace between the Confederate States and the 
United States. "When that time comes it will be in season to set off sue*, 
claims. Again : The United States being entitled to the credits due the Con- 
federate States in the bank, that amount must be paid in money or valuable 
property. 

''I can not recognize the Confederate notes as either money or property. 
The bank having done so by receiving them, issuing their banking upon 
them, loaning upon them, thus giving them credit to the injury of the United 
States, is estopped to deny their value. 

" The ' tin box' belonging to an officer of the supposed Confederate States, 
being a special deposit, will be handed over (to me) in bulk, whether its 
contents are more or less valuable. 

" The bank is responsible only for safe custody. The several deposits of 
the officers of the supposed Confederate States were ^received in the usual 
course of business ; were, doubtless, some of them, perhaps largely, received 
in Confederate notes ; but, for the reason above stated, can only be paid to 
the United States in its own constitutional currency. These are in no sense 
of language 'special deposits.' 

" They were held in general account, went into the funds of the bank, 
were paid out in the discounts of the bank, and if called upon to-day for the 
identical notes put into the bank, which is the only idea of a special deposit, 
the bank would be utterly unable to produce them. 

" As well might my private banker, with whom I have deposited my 
neighbor's check or draft as money, which has been received as money, and 
paid out as money, months afterward, when my neighbor has become bank- 
rupt, buy up other of his checks and drafts at discount, and pay them to 
xue instead of money, upon the ground that I had made a special deposit. 

"The respectability of the source from which the claim of the bank pro- 
ceeds alone saves it from ridicule. 



430 



EFFORTS TOWARD RESTORATION. 



4 ' The United States can in no form recognize any of the sequestrations o 
confiscations of the supposed Confederate States; therefore, the account; 
with the Bank of Kentucky will be made up, and all its property will be 
paid over and delivered, as if such atttempted confiscation had never been 
made. 

" The result is, therefore, upon the showing of the bank by its return, 
that there is due and payable to the Confederate States, and therefore, now 
to be paid to the United States, the sums following : — 



Confederate States treasurer's account $219,090.94 

" " special accounts 12,465.00 

Deposits by officers 

J. M. Huger, receiver 106,812.60 

Gr. M. Ward " 72,084.90 

J. C. Manning " 1,120.00 

$41 1,573.44 

M. L. Smith 16,026.52 

S. Macklm " 6,814.57 

Eeichard " 497.30 



Total $434,911.83 



" This is the legal result to which the mind must arrive in this discus- 
eion. 

" But there are other considerations which may apply to the first item of 
the account. 

" Only the notes of the Confederate States were deposited by the treasurer 
in the bank, and, by the order of the ruling authority then here, the bank 
was obliged to receive them. 

" In equity and good conscience, the Confederate States could call for 
nothing more than they had compelled the bank to take. 

u The United States succeed to the rights of the Confederate States, and 
should only take that which the Confederate States ought to take. 

" But the United States, not taking or recognizing Confederate notes, can 
only leave them with the bank, to be held by it hereafter in special deposit, 
as so much worthless paper. 

" Therefore, I must direct all the items but the first to be paid to my 
order for the United States, in gold, silver, or United States treasury notes 
ai once. The first item of $219,090.94, I will refer to the home govern- 
ment for adjudication ; and, in the mean time, the bank must hold, as a 
special deposit, the amount of Confederate treasury notes above mentioned, 
and a like amount of bullion to await the decision. 

"Benjamin F. Butlee, 

" Major- General Commanding" 



EFFORTS TOWARD RESTORATION. 



431 



A few days after, General Butler had the pleasure of sending to 
Mr. Chase the sum of $245,760, the amount of Confederate funds 
given up by the several banks. " This," remarked the general, " will 
make a fund upon which those whose property has been confiscated 
may have claim." The " home government" took its time over the 
item of $219,090.94. The matter had not been decided when 
General Butler left the Department. 

Another act of justice remained to be done by the banks and 
other dividend-paying corporations of New Orleans. Witness the 
following order : 

" New Oeleans, July 9, 1862. 
" All dividends, interests, coupons, stock-certificates, and accruing inter- 
est, due any or payable by any incorporated or joint-stock company, to any 
citizen of the United States ; and any notes, dues, claims, and accounts of 
any such citizen, due from any such company, or any private person or com- 
pany within this department, which have heretofore been retained under 
any supposed order, authority, act of sequestration, garnishee process, or in 
any way emanating under the supposed Confederate States, or the state of 
Louisiana, since the fraudulent ordinance of secession, are hereby ordered to 
be paid and delivered respectively to the lawful owners thereof, or their 
duly authorized agents." 

This order restored to many citizens of the northern states a 
portion of their annual income which they had long ago given up 
as lost. Nor was this all. The mercantile debts were extracted 
from such of the debtors as had not squandered all their property. 
The papers before me show that there was an active business done, 
at this time, in compelling the payment of sums due to northern 
creditors. The ingenious devices of the repudiators to avoid or 
postpone the agony of disgorging, were numerous and sometimes 
successful. The usual issue of the struggle, however, was a short, 
sharp order from the general : Pay instanter, or be sold up ! The 
individual, I observe, who repudiated a debt of $20,000 to General 
Anderson, of Fort Sumter celebrity, was one of those upon whose 
property General Butler laid his retributive hand. 

Direct efforts were systematically made, during the whole period 
of General Butler's rule, to promote Union feeling. Union clubs 
were encouraged. The " Union Ladies' Association" for clothing 
the children of volunteers, held frequent meetings. The fourth of 



432 



EFFORTS TOWARD RESTORATION. 



July was celebrated with all possible eclat. There were numerous 
flag-raisings . Union meetings were often held, addressed by the 
orators both of the army and of the city. The general caused to 
be cut deep into the granite base of the statue of General Jackson, 
the motto originally designed to adorn it : 

" The Union — it Must and Shall be Preserved." 

Much good was done by these efforts. Seed was sown which 
might have borne glorious fruit when the success of the Union 
arms had given the Union men of the city an assurance of safety. 

New Orleans, during the administration of General Butler, pos- 
sessed, for the first time in its history, a court of justice in which it 
was possible for justice to be done. A code of law which excludes 
from the witness-box the very class who are the most likely to be 
the witnesses of crime, and against whom the greatest number of 
crimes are committed, banishes justice from the land in which it 
exists. One of Major Bell's first decisions in the provost court 
placed white men and black men upon an equality before the law. 
A hunker democrat did this glorious thing ! A negro was called to 
the witness-stand. 

" I object," said the counsel for the prisoner ; " by the laws of 
Louisiana a negro can not testify against a white man." 

" Has Louisiana gone out of the Union ?" asked Major Bell, with 
that imperturbable gravity of his, that veils his keen sense of 
humor. 

" Yes," said the lawyer. 

" Well, then," said the judge, " she took her laws with her 
Let the Man be Sworn!" 

Immortal words ! From that moment dates the renovation qf 
Louisiana ! 

Again. Henry Dominique, a free man of color, was arrested foi 
not having free papers. The prisoner could only protest that he 
was a free man. The court decided, that every man must be pre 
sumed to be free until the contrary was shown. Dominique was 
discharged. 

Major Bell's court was among the lions of the town. During a 
considerable part of General Butler's stay, he administered all the 
justice that was done in New Orleans, according to the forms of a 
court. He decided all cases, from a street broil to questions oi 



EFFORTS TOWARD RESTORATION. 



433 



constitutional law, from petty larency to high treason, from matri- 
monial squabbles to suits for divorce. He would dispose of fifteen 
cases in thirty minutes. An hour was a long trial. He was pes- 
tered, at first, with malicious suits, to avenge injuries committed 
before the capture of the city — a kind of case that sometimes re- 
sulted in penalties to both parties ; often er in a prompt dismissal 
of both from the court. Suits of the most frivolous character were 
brought before him. One morning, two women presented them- 
selves, each to prefer a complaint against the other. 

" Stand there," said he to one of them. " Stand there," to the 
other. " Now both speak at once, and talk for five minutes." 

Two torrents of vituperation poured from the two mouths. The 
judge kept his eye upon his watch, and at the end of the time, said : 

" Now, both of you go home and behave yourselves." 

The women departed with evident satisfaction ; they had relieved 
their minds. 

Some of the cases demanded an intimate knowledge of local law. 
For example : Major Bell observed a colored woman hanging 
about his office for several successive days, m evident distress of 
mind. He asked her, one day, what she wanted She said that 
all her goods had been seized by her landlord for rent, though she 
had paid the rent and had his receipt. It was another tenant of 
the same house, she said, who was delinquent, and had moved 
away in the night, leaving her goods liable to seizure. The landlord 
being summoned, admitted the truth of the woman's story, and 
pointed out the old statute which gave landlords the right to seize 
any property in his house for unpaid rent. Major Bell read this 
astonishing statute, and was compelled to admit that the landlord 
had the law on his side. He remonstrated with him, however, and 
pointed out the cruel injustice which he had committed in seizing 
the property of an honest woman. The man was surly, and said 
that all he wanted was the law. The law gave him the goods and 
he meant to keep them. Major Bell was posed. He scratched his 
wiso-looking head. Suddenly, he had an idea. 

" Are you a free woman?" he asked the complainant. 

" No," said she, " I belong to ." 

"Sir," said the judge to the landlord, "another statute requires 
the written consent of the owner before a tenement can be let to a 
6lave. Produce it." 



EFFORTS T0WAED HE ST OK ATI ON. 



The man had forgotten this statute. He could not produce the 
document. 

"Take your choice," said Major Bell; "either give back the 
woman's property or pay the fine." 

The man preferred to restore the goods, and the poor washer- 
woman was saved from ruin. 

" Master," said she, with the eloquence of perfect gratitude, " if 
you get the yellow fever, send for me, and I'll come and take care 
of you." 

Among the many able men who surrounded General Butler, no 
one labored more assiduously or more effectively in the service of 
the people of New Orleans than Major Bell. He had to ransack all 
books and all the by-ways of his memory for law and precedent to 
guide him in his novel situation. French law, Spanish law, admi- 
ralty law, the slave code, state law, municipal law, common law, 
were all laid under contribution ; and when these failed to meet the 
case, he drew upon the ample resources of his own common sense. 
I should add, that during his midsummer absence from the city, his 
seat was worthily filled by Lieutenant-Colonel Kinsman, the Lieu- 
tenant Kinsman of previous pages. Both of these officers were much 
indebted to the local and legal knowledge of the clerk of the pro- 
vost court, Mr. Samuel F. Glenn, formerly a member of the bar of 
New Orleans. 

A government needs a government organ. During the month 
of May, several of the newspapers of New Orleans were suspended 
by orders from head-quarters. They published the most extrava- 
gant rumors of federal disasters, and closed their columns against 
the true intelligence. Their comments hovered upon the verge of 
treason, and, not unfrequently, passed beyond the verge. A sud- 
den order to suspend would bring them to a sense of the anoma- 
lous situation ; they would promise submission ; and were generally 
allowed to resume publication in a day or two.* 

* " Head-quarters, Department of the Gulf, 
" New Orleans, Sept. 5th, 1862. 
" It having been made to appear that the suppression of the 'Estafette du Sudf French news- 
paper, will work distress among the employes of the office who are faultless, and the proprie- 
tors having assured the United States authorities that nothing shall be published that :'e offensive 
or inimical, or in any way reflecting upon the United States or its authorities. — the puolication, 
upon this pledge, is permitted to be resumed at the instance of the acting French consul, M. 
Fauconnett. 

"By order of Major-Ge>teral Btttu:b. 

"A. F. Puffer. Lieutenant and A. D. C." 1 



EFFORTS TOWARD RESTORATION. 



435 



One of these newspapers, the Delta, noted for the virulence of 
its treason, was otherwise treated. The office was seized, and per- 
manently held. Two officers, experienced in the conduct of news- 
papers, Captain John Clark, of Boston, and Lieutenant-Colonel E. 
M. Brown, of the Eighth Vermont, were detailed to edit the pa- 
per in the interest of the United States. The first number of the 
regenerated Delta appeared on the 24th of May, 1862, and it con- 
tinued under the same direction until the 8th of February, 1863. 
It was conducted with very great ability and spirit. Besides the 
labor of the editors, it had the advantage of occasional contribu- 
tions from Major Bell and other officers; the commanding general 
himself frequently giving it the aid of his suggestions. Several 
ladies of N"ew Orleans contributed. One of them, Mrs. Taylor, who 
adopted the signature of "Nellie," wrote many lively satirical 
sketches, which greatly amused the readers of the paper, besides 
calling forth the exertions of other ladies of similar character. In 
one feature the Delta differed strikingly from the ordinary newspa- 
pers of the South. Your true southerner, your "original secession- 
ist," is a very serious personage. Vanity of the intenser sort is a 
serious foible ; proud ignorance is serious ; cruelty is serious ; one- 
idea is serious. There is no joke in your true southerner; and as a 
consequence, his newspaper is generally a grave and heavy thing, 
enlivened only by vituperation and ferocity. The sport-impulse 
comes of an excess of strength. The man of true humor is so much 
the master of his subject that he can play with it, as the strong man 
of the circus plays with cannon-balls. The regenerated Delta was 
one of the most humorous of newspapers. Almost every issue had 
its good joke, and a great many of its jocular paragraphs were 
exceedingly happy hits. 

Allusion has been made to the secession songs and secession 
sentiments taught to the children of the public schools. The 
schools were dismissed for the summer vacation two weeks earlier 
than usual, and during the interval the school system was re- 
organized on the model of that of Boston. A bureau of educa- 
tion and a superintendent of public schools were appointed — good 
Union men, all. The old teachers were dismissed, and a corps, 
true to their country, selected in their stead. School-books tainted 
with treason and pro-slavery were banished, and were replaced by 
such as are used in northern schools — Union song-books not beingr 
19 



436 



EFFECT OF THE FAILURE LN VIRGINIA. 



forgotten. The new system worked well, and continues, to this 
day, to diffuse sound knowledge and correct sentiments among the 
people of New Orleans. 

Snch were some of the measures of the commandiug general, de- 
signed to restore Louisiana to a degree of its former prosperity 
and good feeling. They were as successful as the circumstances of 
the time permitted. The levee showed some signs of commercial 
activity. The money distributed by the army gave life to the 
retail trade. The poorer classes were won back to a love for the 
power which protected and sustained them. The original seces- 
sionists were, are, and will ever be, there and everywhere, the 
bitter foes of the United States ; but, among those who had re- 
luctantly accepted secession because they supposed it inevitable, 
the general and the Union gained hosts of friends, who remain 
to this day, in spite of much discouragement, loyal to the gov- 
ernment. 



CHAPTER XXH. 

THE EFFECT IN NEW ORLEANS OF OUR LOSSES IN VIRGINIA. 

The Union army in the Department of the Gulf consisted of 
about fourteen thousand men, and the disasters in Virginia, which 
increased a hundred-fold the difficulty of holding New Orleans, 
forbade the re-enforcement of that army. Ship Island, Fort Jackson, 
Fort St. Philip, Baton Rouge, posts upon the lakes and elsewhere, 
required strong garrisons, which reduced the effective men in and 
near the city to a number inadequate to a successful defense of the 
place against such an attack as might be expected. General Butler 
was perfectly aware that the recovery of the city was an object 
which the rebels had distinctly proposed to themselves. It was the 
real aim of all that series of movements of which the attack upon 
Baton Rouge, by Breckinridge, was the most conspicuous. The 
general's excellent spy system brought him this information, and 
most of his own measures were more or less influenced by it. 



EFFECT OF THE FAILURE IX VIRGINIA. 



437 



One powerful iron-clad ram could have cleared the river in an 
hour of the Union fleet. That done, the city might have fallen 
before the well-concerted attack of a force such as the rebels were 
known to be able to assemble. They could not have held the city 
^ong ; but they might have taken it, and held it long enough to 
do infinite mischief; or they might have necessitated its destruc- 
tion. 

The temper of the secessionists in New Orleans was the worst 
possible. Liars are generally credulous. At least, they are easily 
made to believe lies, though they find it so difficult to receive the 
truth. The news from Virginia would have sufficed to neutralize, 
for a time, the general's best measures, even if it had come with- 
out exaggerations. But news from Virginia uniformly came first 
through rebel sources by telegraph, while the truth arrived only 
after a long sea voyage. To show the effect of this inflammatory 
intelligence, take one incident as related by an officer of General 
Butler's staff: 

"As a result of this continuous report of national defeats before 
Richmond, St. Charles street, near the hotel, was yesterday (July 
10th) the scene of violence and threatening trouble. A young woman 
dressed in white and of handsome personal appearance, about 10 
o'clock, passed by the hotel, wearing a secession badge. She finally 
insulted one of our soldiers, and was arrested by a policeman, who 
attempted to take her to the mayor's office. As a matter of 
course, there was instantly a scene of confusion, as she had selected 
the time when she would find the most obnoxious secessionists 
parading the vicinity. Upon reaching the building next to the 
Bank of Orleans, she theatrically appealed to the crowd for pro- 
tection, and the next moment the policeman was knocked down, 
and a shot was fired out of the store, and wounded the soldier 
assisting the civil officer. Thereupon a hundred persons, returned 
soldiers of Beauregard's army, cried murder, and one of the 
national officers at the same moment fired at the assassin who 
wounded the soldier. In the confusion the murderers escaped, but 
the woman, together with some of her most prominent sym- 
pathizers, were conveyed before General Shepley at the City Hall. 
Upon being brought into the presence of General Shepley, she 
commenced the utterance of threats and abuse, and, further, took 
out of her bosom innumerable bits of paper, on which were written 



438 



EFFECT OF THE FAILURE IN VIRGINIA. 



insulting epithets, addressed to the United States authorities, and 
one by one thrust them into General Shepley's hand. After some 
few questions she was put into a carriage and conveyed to General 
Butler's head-quarters, where she was recognized as the mistress 
of a gambler and murderer, now, by General Butler's orders, con- 
4 fined at Fort Jackson, but nominally passing as the wife of one 
John H. Larue." 

There was every reason to believe that this was a concerted 
scene between the woman and the crowd. General Butler sent for 
her husband, who, on being asked his occupation, replied that he 
" played cards for a living." The general disposed of the case 
thus : 

"John H. Larue, being by his own confession a vagrant, a person 
without visible means of support, and one who gets his living by 
playing cards, is committed to the parish prison until farther 
orders. Anna Larue, his wife, having been found in the public 
streets, wearing a Confederate flag upon her person, in order to 
incite a riot, which act has already resulted in a breach of the 
peace, and danger to the life of a soldier of the United States, is 
sent to Ship Island till farther orders. She is to be kept separate 
and apart from the other women confined there." 

The hideous events attending the funeral of Lieutenant De Kay, 
of General Williams's staff, showed the true quality of the " original 
secessionists ;" showed, at once, their cowardice, their meanness, 
and their ferocity; and proved the necessity for those strong 
measures by which the secessionists of the city were deprived 
of their power to co-operate with their friends beyond the Union 
lines. 

Lieutenant De Kay, summoned from his studies in Europe by 
the peril of his country, was on board a gun-boat descending the 
Mississippi, when it was fired into by guerillas. He received twelve 
buck-shots in his body. He lingered a month in New Orleans, en- 
during his sufferings with heroic cheerfulness, content to die for his 
country. He expired on the 27th of June, mourned by the whole 
army. General Butler was at Baton Rouge on the day of the 
funeral, and his absence emboldened the baser rebels, who seized 
the opportunity to insult the funeral cortege with laughter and op- 
probrious outcries. Women again appeared in the streets wearing 
Confederate colors. The notorious Mrs. Philips, formerly a member 



EFFECT OF THE FAILURE IN VIRGINIA. 



439 



of Mr. Buchanan's boudoir cabinet, banished from Washington as 
an ally of traitors, saluted the procession with ostentatious laughter 
from the balcony of her house. Many other women took pains to 
exhibit their exultation. A bookseller placed in the window of 
his store a skeleton labeled " Chickahominy." Another miscreant 
exhibited, in a club-room and elsewhere, a cross which he said was 
made of a Yankee's bone. When the procession arrived at the 
church, the galleries were found filled with a rabble of filthy scoun- 
drels, the " dregs of the city," whose demeanor was in keeping with 
that of their instigators out-of-doors. No minister appeared to 
conduct the last ceremonies. Dr. Leacock, the pastor of the church, 
a weak, vacillating man, had promised to officiate, but had been in- 
duced to break his promise by the persuasions of members of his 
church ; and other arrangements for the ceremony had to be hastily 
made amid the sneers and exultation of the crowd. 

The scenes of that afternoon were so profoundly disgusting, so 
exasperating to the long-suffering troops, that, probably, no other 
body of men ever assembled in arms would have had the self-con- 
trol to bear them in silence.* They did bear them in silence. Not 
a resentful word, still less a resentful act escaped them. It proba- 
bly occurred to most of the troops that General Butler was ex- 
pected home on the following day ; and to him they knew they 
could safely commit the vindication of outraged decency. 

The general, meanwhile, had been enjoying a pleasant excursion 

* The following, from the pen of Lieutenant (now General) Godfrey Weitzel, appeared in the 
Delta the next morning : 

" To the Editob of the Delta. — This afternoon the funeral of De Kay was held. A young 
officer of the United States army was buried, who, in every respect, was the peer of any young 
man in the South. We who knew, loved and admired him. He was fatally wounded a month 
ago while defending a cause in which he took the sword as honestly, with as high toned feelings 
of duty, as any man now fighting for the South. He left his studies in Europe to espouse this 
cause, because he honestly and sincerely believed it to be his duty. He was wounded, but how ? 
From behind a bush, with buck-shot fired from a gun, probably by a man who would not have 
dared to meet him openly. He lingers a month. Not a word of complaint or reproach passed 
his lip. Always happy and cheerful even unto his last moment. We requested yesterday the 
use of a house of God, in which to show to his mortal remains our respect. It is granted, but 
how ? After moving through collections of street cars, crowded with ladies wearing secession 
badges, and passively smiling and cheerful crowds studiously collected to insult the dead, we 
arrived at the house of the Lord. We find it thrown open like a stable, as if by military compul- 
sion. We enter, and find the galleries and the most prominent places occupied by a rabble and 
negroes — a collection such as never defiled a church before. 

" Gentlemen and ladies of New Orleans and of the South, there was no chivalry in this. 

" G. W eitzel, Lieutenant U. 8 Engineer*. 

"New Orleans, June 28, 1S62. 1 '' 



440 



EFFECT OF THE FAILURE IN VIRGINIA. 



ap the river, and was returning well pleased with what he had 
seen and heard at the capital of the state. " I have been agreeably 
disappointed," he wrote to the secretary of war, " in the feeling at 
Baton Rouge. There is a longing for the restoration of the old 
state of things under the Union, which is gratifying. I had a visit 
from a dozen or more of the gentlemen of Baton Rouge, and vicinity, 
representing some five or six millions of property, and had conver- 
sation with them upon the new system of partisan rangers just now 
inaugurated, i. e., guerilla warfare. They deprecated it, and will 
do everything possible to discountenance it. They offered to take 
the oath of allegiance if required, but assured me they thought they 
could do more good by abstaining from that oath for the present, 
because it would be impossible for them to have communication 
with these partisans if they took the oath and it should be pub- 
licly known." 

"I brought before me some of the most violent of the rebels, 
and, after calling their attention to the present state of things, I 
proposed to them the oath of allegiance, and after consideration 
over night, two of them, Mr. Benjamin, brother of the rebel secre- 
tary of war, and Byam, the mayor of the city, took the oath. I 
brought away with me, and now have under arrest, five of those 
who had used threats toward the men who had shown themselves 
favorable to the Union. 

" Upon full reflection and observation, I find the condition of 
public sentiment to be this : The planters and men of property are 
now tired of the war ; are well disposed toward the Union ; only 
fearing lest their negroes should not be let alone ; would be quite 
happy to have the Union restored in all things. 

" The operative classes of white men, of all trades, are, as a rule, 
in favor of the Union. 

" In fact, the rebellion was at first inaugurated for the purpose 
of establishing a landed aristocracy, as against the poor and mid- 
dling whites, who had shown some disposition to assert their 
equality with the planter, and had begun to express themselves 
through organizations, on the basis of the Masonic Order, of which 
the South is full, and of which that ritual is the pattern." 

Returning from these encouraging scenes, he was called upon 
to deal with the savages of New Orleans. Mrs. Philips, and the ex- 
hibitors of the skeleton and the cross, were brought before him. 



EFFECT OF THE FAILUEE IN VTEGINIA. 



441 



The manner in which he disposed of their cases can best be shown 
by presenting three special orders, issued on the day after his re- 
turn : 

".New Oeleans, June 30, 1862. 

" Mrs. Philips, wife of Philip Philips, having been once imprisoned for 
her traitorous proclivities and acts at Washington, and released by the clem- 
ency of the government, and having been found training her children to 
spit upon officers of the United States at New Orleans, for which act of one 
of those children both her husband and herself apologized and were again 
forgiven, is now found on the balcony of her house during the passage of 
the funeral procession of Lieutenant De Kay, laughing and mocking at his 
remains ; and, upon being inquired of by the commanding general if this 
fact were so, contemptuously replies, 'I was in good spirits that day.' 

" It is, therefore, ordered. That she be not regarded and treated as a com- 
mon woman of whom no officer or soldier is bound to take notice, but as 
an uncommon, bad, and dangerous woman, stirring up strife and inciting to 
riot. 

" And that, therefore, she be confined at Ship Island, in the state of Mis- 
sissippi, within proper limits there, till farther orders ; and that she be 
allowed one female servant and no more if she so choose. That one of the 
houses for hospital purposes be assigned her as quarters ; and a soldier's ra- 
tion each day be served out to her, with the means of cooking the same ; 
and that no verbal or written communication be allowed with her except 
through this office ; and that she be kept in close confinement until re- 
moved to Ship Island 35 

" New Oeleans, June 30, 1862. 

" Fidel Keller has been found exhibiting a human skeleton in his book- 
store window, in a public place in this city, labeled ' Ohickahominy,' in 
large letters, meaning and intending that the bones should be taken by the 
populace to be the bones of a United States soldier slain in that battle, in 
order to bring the authority of the United States and our army into con- 
tempt, and for that purpose had stated to the passers-by that the bone9 
were those of a Yankee soldier ; whereas, in truth and fact, they were the 
bones purchased some weeks before of the Mexican consul, to whom they 
were pledged by a medical student. 

" It is, therefore, ordered, That for this desecration of the dead, he be con- 
fined at Ship Island for two years at hard labor, and that he be allowed to 
communicate with no person on the island except Mrs. Philips, who has 
been sent there for a like offense. Any written message may be sent by 
him through these head-quarters. 



442 



EFFECT OF THE FAILURE IN VIRGINIA. 



44 Upon this order being read to Mm, the said Keller requested that so 
much of it as associated him with ' that woman ' might be recalled, which 
request was therefore reduced to writing by him as follows : 

'"New Orleans, June 30, 1862. 
" ' Mr. Keller desires that that part of the sentence which refers to the 
communication with Mrs. Philips be stricken out, as he does not wish to 
have communication with the said Mrs. Philips. 

" 4 F. Keller. 

44 ' Witness, D. Waters.' 

44 Said request seeming to the commanding general reasonable, so much 
of said order is revoked, and the remainder will be executed."* 

44 New Orleans, June- 30, 1862. 
44 John W. Andrews exhibited a cross, the emblem of the suffering of 
our blessed Saviour, fashioned for a personal ornament, which he said was 
made from the bones of a Yankee soldier, and having shown this too, with- 
out rebuke, in the Louisiana Club, which claims to be composed of chivalric 
gentlemen, 

"It is, therefore, ordered, That for this desecration of the dead, he be con- 
fined at hard labor for two years on the fortifications of Ship Island, and 
that he be allowed no verbal or written communication to or with any one, 
except through these head-quarters." 

Mrs. Philips, I may add, was released after several^eeks deten- 
tion.f She went to Mobile, where she received an ovation from the 
leaders of society, and was the subject of laudatory paragraphs in 
the newspapers. She had the grace, however, to deny having in- 
tended to insult the remains of Lieutenant De Kay. She said that 
she really was in high spirits that day, and that her ill-timed mer- 
riment was not provoked by the passage of the funeral procession. 

* The explanation of Keller's curious request is this : There was another Mrs. Philips in New 
Orleans, notorious as a keeper of a house of ill-fame. The prisoner having only heard of this Mrs. 
Philips, had the decency to desire to be kept apart from her, fearing, as he said, the effect upon 
the feelings of his wife if he should be associated with such a woman. The general was not 
aware of the cause of his scruples at the time. 

1 " Head-quabtees, Department of the Gulf, 
"New Orleans, La., September 14. 1862. 
'■'•Ordered: — The Commanding General having learned that the farther imprisonment of Mrs. 
Philips may result in injury to the wholly innocent, directs her to be released, if she chooses to 
give her parole, that in nothing she will give aid, comfort, or information to the enemies of thd 
United States. 

"By order of Majob-Geneeal Butler. 

"A. A.. Fuller, Lieut, and A. D. C 7 ." 



EFFECT OF THE FAILURE IN VIRGINIA. 



443 



A trifling circumstance, of a ludicrous nature, may serf e to show- 
something of the disposition of the people — just as we learn the 
feelings of a family from the prattle of the children. Among a 
batch of captured letters was found one from a certain Edward 
Wright, a resident of New Orleans, to a lady in Secessia, full of 
the most ridiculous lies. He told his correspondent that the Yan- 
kee officers were the most craven creatures on earth. One of them, 
he said, had insulted a lady in the streets, which Wright per- 
ceiving, he had slapped the officer's face and kicked him, and then 
offered to meet him in the field ; but the officer gave some " rig- 
marole excuse" and declined. For this, he continued, he was 
taken before Picayune Butler, and came near being sent to Fort 
J ackson. 

General Butler caused the writer of this epistle to be brought 
before him, when the following conversation occurred betweei 
them : — 

" What is your name ?" 

"Edward Wright." 

" Have I ever had the pleasure of seeing you before ?" 
"Not that I know of." 

"Have you ever been before an officer of the United Stat** 
charged with any offense ?" 
" No, sir." 

" Have you ever had any difficulty or misunderstanding with 
officer of the United States in the streets or elsewhere?" 
" Never, sir." 

" Have you any complaint to make of the conduct of any of my 
officers or men ?" 
"None, sir." 

" Have you ever observed any misconduct on their part, since we 
arrived in the city ? 
" Never, sir." 

The general now produced the letter, and handed it to the 
prisoner. 

"Did you write that letter?" 

" It looks like my handwriting." 
, " Did you write the letter ?" 

" Yes ; I wrote it." 

" Is not the story of your slapping and kicking the officer, an 
19* 



444 



EFFECT OF THE FAILURE IX VIRGINIA. 



unmitigat'ed and malicious lie, designed to bring the army of the 
United States into contempt ?" 
" Well, sir, it isn't true, I admit." 

The general then dictated a sentence like this, which was written 
at the bottom of the letter : " I, Edward Wright, acknowledge 
that this letter is basely and abominably false, and that I wrote it 
for the purpose of bringing the army of the United States into 
contempt." 

" Sign that, sir." 

"I won't. I am a British subject, and claim the protection of the 
British consul." 
" Sign it, sir." 

" General Butler, you may put every ball of that pistol through 
my brain, but I will never sign that paper." 

" Captain Davis, make out an order to the provost-marshal, to 
hang this man at daybreak to-morrow. In the mean time, let him 
have any priest he chooses to send for. Gentlemen, I am going to 
dinner." 

Before the general had reached his quarters, an orderly came 
running up. 

" General, he has signed." 

" Well, keep him in the guard-house all night, and let him go in 

the morning." 

A conspiracy to assassinate General Butler was detected early 
in June. The proofs were sufficient to warrant the arrest of four 
abandoned characters. The general, content with the discovery 
and frustration of the plot, forbore to prosecute the men, and 
agreed to pardon the ringleader on condition of his leaving the 
city. The general did this in compliance with the entreaties of his 
aged father, who had fought under General Jackson, in the war of 
1 812, and had remained true to his country. 

These incidents may suffice to show the disposition of the seces- 
sionists of New Orleans, inflamed by the news from Virginia, in- 
creased in number by the partial dissolution of Beauregard's army, 
and encouraged to expect an attempt to drive the Union army 
from the soil of Louisiana. 

Hence the justification of those measures, about to be related, 
which reduced the secession party in New Orleans to a state of 
" subjugation," the most complete. Before entering upon those 



EFFECT OF THE FAILURE IN VIRGINIA. 



445 



measures, it will be proper to show that not the rebels only felt the 
weight of General Butler's iron hand. Offenses committed by ad- 
herents of the Union against the people of the city, were visited 
with punishment as prompt and rigorous as any which were perpe- 
trated against the country and the flag. 

It was in connection with the searches for concealed property 
of the Confederate government, under the general order of June 
t)th, that the tragical events occurred to which I allude, and which 
were among the most notable of General Butler's administra- 
tion. 'No one was allowed to enter a house for the purpose of 
searching, without a written order from General Butler, General 
Shepley, or Colonel French. For several days the searches pro- 
ceeded quietly enough, without exciting remark. But about tht 
middle of June, complaints came pouring into head-quarters of par- 
ties entering houses for the ostensible purpose of searching for Con- 
federate arms, who carried off valuable private property, such as 
money and jewels. The detection of these villains was remarkably 
prompt. 

On the 12th of June, at noon, a complaint was brought to Gen- 
eral Butler of a most audacious and flagrant outrage of this kind. 
A cab drove up to a house in Toulouse street, from which issued 
two men, who entered the house and presented to the inmates 
an order to search for arms, signed, apparently, by General 
Butler. Two men remained in the cab while the search proceeded. 
The two who entered the house, and rummaged its closets and 
drawers, behaved to the family with great politeness, expressing 
their regret at having been ordered upon so unpleasant a duty, and 
declaring their desire to perform that duty with as little inconven- 
ience to the inmates of the house as possible. Upon retiring, they 
were so good as to leave a certificate to this effect : 

" J. William Henry, First-Lieutenant of the Eighteenth Massachu- 
setts volunteers, has searched the premises No. 93 Toulouse street, 
and find, to the best of my judgment, that all the people who live 
there are loyal. Please examine no more. 

"J. William Henry." 

After the departure of these urbane and considerate gentlemen, 
*he lady of the house found that they had carried with them eight- 



446 



EFFECT OF THE FAILURE IK VIRGINIA. 



een hundred and eighty dollars, a gold watch, and a breastpin. 
Another sum of over eight thousand dollars they had overlooked. 

There was but one clue to the discovery of these men. They had 
ridden to the house in cab No. 50, which had remained before the 
door during the search, and in which the searchers had departed. 
The driver of cab No. 50, who was immediately brought before 
the general, was required to relate the history of his doings during 
the previous night. In the course of the afternoon, the coffee-house 
to which he had last conveyed his passengers, was surrounded, and 
every man in it was brought before the general. There were four 
of them. General Butler never forgets a face that he has once 
seen. After looking at the men a moment, he asked one of them : 

" Where have I seen you ?" 

" In Boston." 

" Where in Boston ?" 

" In the Municipal Court." 

" For what offense were you tried before that court ?" 
"Burglary." 

"Did you join any regiment?" 

"Yes." 

" Which?" 

" The Thirtieth Massachusetts." 

" Why are you not with your regiment ?" 

" I was discharged." 

"What for?" 

" Disease." 

" Well, you ought to be hanged any how, for you have robbed 
before, and been convicted." 

"Don't do it, general, and I'll tell you all about it." 
" Well, make a clean breast of it, then." 

The man confessed. He said that he was one of an organized 
gang, who had been entering houses for several nights and plun- 
dering. The particular offense committed in Toulouse street was 
brought home, on the spot, to two others of the arrested men, who 
confessed their guilt. A considerable part of the stolen money 
was recovered and restored. Three more of the gang were arrested 
by Colonel Stafford's detectives on the following day. General 
Butler disposed of these flagrant cases in the two special orders 
following : 



EFFECT OF THE FAILURE IN VIRGINIA. 



447 



"New Orleans, June 13, 1862. 
" William M. Clary, late second officer of the United States steam 
transport Saxon, and Stanislaus Roy, of New Orleans, on the night of the 
11th of June inst., having forged a pretended authority of the major-gene- 
ral commanding, being armed, in company with other evil disposed persons, 
under false names, and in a pretended uniform of the soldiers of the United 
States, entered the house of a peaceable citizen, No. 93 Toulouse street, 
about the hour of eleven o'clock in the night time, and there, in a pretended 
search for arms and treasonable correspondence, by virtue of such forged 
authority, plundered said house and stole therefrom eighteen hundred and 
eighty-five dollars in current bank-notes, one gold watch and chain, and 
one bosom pin. 

" This outrage was reported to the commanding general at twelve o'clock 
k. m. on the 12th of June instant, and by his order Clary and Roy were 
detected and arrested on the same day, and brought before the command 
ing general at one o'clock of this day, and where it appeared by incontro- 
vertible evidence that the facts above stated were true, and all material 
parts thereof were voluntarily confessed by Clary and Roy. 

" It farther appeared that Clary and Roy had before this occasion visited 
other houses of peaceable citizens in the night time, for like purposes and 
under like false pretenses. 

" 'Brass knuckles,' burglars' keys, and a portion of the stolen property 
and other property stolen from other parties, were found upon the person 
of Roy, and in his lodgings. 

" Whereupon, after a full hearing of the defense of said Clary and Roy, and 
due consideration of the evidence, it was ordered by the commanding gene- 
ral that Wm. M. Clary and Stanislaus Roy, for their offenses, be punished 
by being hanged by the neck until they are dead, and this sentence be 
executed upon them and each of them, between the hours of eight o'clock 
a. m. and twelve, m. on Monday, the 16th of June inst., at or near the 
parish prison, in the city of New Orleans. 

" The provost-marshal will cause said sentence to be executed, and for 
so doing this order will be sufficient warrant." 

"New Orleans, June 15, 1862. 
"Theodore Lieb, of New Orleans, George William Crage, late first offi- 
cer of the ship City of New York, and Frank Newton, late private of the 
Thirteenth regiment Connecticut volunteers, having, upon their own con- 
fession and clear proof, after a full hearing, been convicted of being members 
of a gang of thieves, consisting of seven or more, of which William M. 
Clary and Stanislaus Roy, mentioned in Special Order No. 98, and now 
under sentence of death, were principals, bound together by an oath or 
obligation, engaged by means of a forged authority and false uniforms in 



448 



EFFECT OF THE FAILURE IN VIRGINIA. 



robbing the houses of divers peaceable citizens of their moneys, watches, 
jewelry and valuables, under pretense of searching for arms and articles 
of war, must suffer the proper penalty. 

u At least eight houses, as appears by their confession, were plundered 
by three or more of the gang, while others were watching without, at 
various times, and a large amount of property carried off, a large portion 
of which has since been recovered. 

; ' The heinousness of this offense, heightened by the contempt and dis- 
grace brought upon the uniform, authority and flag of the United States 
by their fraudulent acts, in making it cover their nefarious practices, ren- 
ders them peculiarly the subjects of prompt and condign punishment. 

" It is therefore ordered that George William Crage and Frank Newton 
(for the offenses aforesaid) be hanged by the neck until they and each of 
them be dead, and that this sentence be executed upon them at or near the 
parish prison, in the city of New Orleans, on Monday, the 16th day of 
June instant, between the hours of six a. m. and twelve m., under the direc- 
tion of the provost-marshal ; and for so doing this shall be sufficient war- 
rant. 

" Theodore Lieb, being a youth of eighteen years only, in consideration 
of his tender years, has his punishment commuted to confinement at hard 
labor on the fortifications at Ship Island, or the nearest military post, 
during the pleasure of the president of the United States." 

Thus, the crime was committed on the 11th, detected on the 
12th, two of the criminals were tried on the 13th, two more on 
the 15th, and the whole ordered to be executed on the 16th. The 
man whose confession led to the conviction of the offenders was 
sentenced to five years' imprisonment at hard labor. Two or three 
other less guilty participants were sentenced to six months at Ship 
Island with ball and chain. 

Those who observed the mingled nonchalance and severity of 
General Butler's demeanor during those four days, may naturally 
have concluded that it cost him no great exertion of will to hang 
these criminals. In, reality, it caused him the severest internal con- 
flict of his whole life. During the excitement of the detection and 
trial, there was, indeed, no room for any emotions but disgust at 
the crime and exultation at his success in discovering the perpetra- 
tors. It was far different on the Sunday preceding the day of exe- 
cution, when the men lay at his mercy in prison, when the wives 
of two of them came imploring for mercy, when the distant families 
of the other two were brought to his knowledge, and when the 



THE SHEEP AND THE GOATS. 



449 



softer hearted of his own military family pleaded for a commuta- 
tion of the sentence. Mrs. Butler was at the North for the sum- 
mer. Alone that night, the general paced his room, considering 
and reconsidering the case. He could not find a door of escape for 
these men. He had executed a citizen of New Orleans for an 
offense against the flag of his country; how could he pardon a 
crime committed by Union men against the citizens of New 
Orleans, a crime involving seyeral distinct offenses of the deepest 
dye ? His duty was clear, but he could not sleep. He paced his 
room till the dawn of day. 

The men were executed in the morning ; all but one of them 
confessing their guilt. To one of the families thus left destitute, 
the general gave a sewing-machine, by which they were enabled to 
earn a subsistence. 

The effect of this prompt and rigorous justice was most salutary 
upon the minds of both parties in New Orleans; and its effect 
would have been as manifest as it was real, but for the disturbing 
influence of the terrible tidings from Virginia ; in the presence of 
which the wisdom of an archangel would have failed to give confi- 
dence to the loyal people of Louisiana, or win to the Union cause 
any considerable number of the party for secession. 



CHAPTER XXHI. 

THE SHEEP AWD THE GOATS. 

We may now proceed to consider the iron-handed measures ol 
the commanding general, which were designed to isolate the seces 
sionists, and render them innoxious. 

Crowds were forbidden to assemble, and public meetings, unless 
expressly authorized. The police were ordered to disperse all 
street-gatherings of a greater number of persons than three. 

In the sixth week of the occupation of the city, General Butler 
began the long series of measures, by which the sheep were sepa- 
rated from the goats ; by which the attitude of every inhabitant of 



i50 THE SHEEP A2sT> THE GOATS. 

New Orleans toward the government of the United States was as- 
certained and recorded. The people might be politically divided 
thus: Union men; rebels; foreigners friendly to the United States; 
foreigners sympathizing with the Confederates ; soldiers from Beau- 
regard's army inclined to submission ; soldiers from Beauregard's 
irmy not inclined to submission. These soldiers, who numbered 
everal thousands, were required to come forward and define their 
position, and either take the oath of allegiance, or surrender them- 
selves prisoners of war ; in which latter case, they would be admitted 
to parole until regularly exchanged, or if they preferred it, remain in 
confinement. In this way, the name, standing, residence, and politi- 
cal sympathies of this concourse of men were placed on record, 
and the general was enabled to know where they were to be found, 
and what he had to expect from them in time of danger. 

His next step was to decree, that no authority of any kind should 
be exercised in New Orleans by traitors, and that no favors should 
be granted to traitors by the United States, except the mere pro- 
tection from personal violence secured by the police. The follow- 
ing general order was designed to secure these objects : 

" New Oeleans, June 10, 1862. 

"Geneeal Oedeb No. 41. 

" The constitution and laws of the United States require that all military, 
civil, judicial, executive and legislative officers of the United States, and of 
the several states, shall take an oath to support the constitution and laws. 
If a person desires to serve the United States, or to receive special profit 
from a protection from the United States, he should take upon himself the 
corresponding obligations. This oath will not be. as it has never been, 
forced upon any. It is too sacred an obligation, too exalted in its tenure, 
and brings with it too many benefits and privileges, to be profaned by un- 
willing lip service. It enables its recipient to say, 'I am an American citi 
zen,' the highest title known, save that of him who can say with St. Paul, 
'I was free born,' and have never renounced that freedom. 

•'Judges, justices, sheriffs, attorneys, notaries, aDd all officers of the law 
whatever, and all persons who have ever been, or who have ever claimed 
to be, citizens of the United States in this department, who therefore exer- 
cise any office, hold any place of trust or calling whatever which calls foi 
the doing of any legal act whatever, or for the doing of any act. judicial or 
administrative, which shall or may affect any other person than the actor, 
must take and subscribe the following oath : 4 1 do solemnly swear (oi 
affirm) that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the United States of 
America, and will support the constitution thereof.' All acts, doings, deeds. 



THE SHEEP AM) THE GOAT? 



451 



instruments, records or certificates, certified or attested by, and transactions 
done, performed, or made by any of the persons above described, from and 
after the loth day of June hist., who shall not have taken and subscribed 
such oath, are void and of no effect. 

u It having become necessary, in the judgment of the commanding gen- 
eral, as a 'public exigency,' to distinguish those who are well disposed to- 
ward the government of the United States, from those who still hold alle- 
giance to the Confederate States, and ample time having been given to all 
citizens for reflection upon this subject, and full protection to person and 
property of every law-abiding citizen having been afforded, according to 
the terms of the proclamation of ATay 1st : 

" Be it further ordered, That all persons ever heretofore citizens of the 
United States, asking or receiving any favor, protection, privilege, passport, 
or to have money paid them, property, or other valuable thing whatever 
delivered to them, or any benefit of the power of the United States extend- 
ed to them, except protection from personal violence, must take and sub 
scribe the oath above specified, before their request can be heard, or any act 
done in their favor by any officer of the United States within this depart- 
ment. And for this purpose all persons shall be deemed to have been citi 
zens of the United States who shall have been residents therein for the 
space of five years and upward, and if foreign born, shall not have claimed 
and received a protection of their government, duly signed and registered 
by the proper officer, more than sixty days previous to the publication of 
this order. 

"It having come to the knowledge of the commanding general that 
many persons resident vrithin this department have heretofore been aiding 
rebellion by furnishing arms and munitions of war, running the blockade, 
giving information, concealing property, and abetting by other ways, the 
so-called Confederate States, in violation of the laws of neutrality imposed 
upon them by their sovereigns, as well as the laws of the United States, and 
that a less number are still so engaged ; it is therefore ordered, that all for- 
eigners claiming any of the privileges of an American citizen, or protection 
or favor from the government of die United States (except protection from 
personal violence), shall previously take and subscribe an oath in the form 
following : 

'•I. , do solemnly swear, or affirm, that so long as my govern- 

ment remains at peace with the United States, I will do no act, or consent 
that any be done, or conceal any that has been or is about to be done, that 
shall be done, that shall aid or comfort any of the enemies or opposers of 
the United. States whatever. 

(Signed), 

"Subject of ." 

" At the City Hall, at the provost court, at the provost-marshal's office, 



452 



THE SHEEP AND THE GOATS. 



and at the several police stations, books will be opened, and a proper officer 
will be present to administer the proper oaths to any person desiring to take 
the same, and to witness the subscription of the same by the party taking 
it. Such officer will furnish to each person so taking and subscribing, a 
certificate in form following : 

" Department of the Gulf, New Orleans, 1862. 

" has taken and subscribed the oath required by General Order 

No. 41, for a of 

" (Signed), ." 

General orders issued at NTew Orleans usually produced consid- 
erable stir among the parties interested ; but none of them caused 
so much excitement and such universal alarm as this. If the citizens 
were astounded, the foreigners were puzzled. Xo one was obliged 
to take the oath ; but what would happen to those who did not 
take it ? The office-holders, however, could entertain no doubts re- 
specting their fate, and all of them who adhered still to the Rich- 
mond government at once resigned their places. The residue of 
the city government was dissolved, and the military commandant 
reigned alone over ISTew Orleans. One of the city officials, I ob- 
serve from divers documents, made a parting dive into the city 
treasury, but he was caught in the act, and compelled to let go his 
booty. 

General Shepley issued the following order relative to the gov : 
ernment of the city : 

" Head-quarters Military Command ant, 
"New Orleans, City Hall, June 27, 1862. 
" The legislative power of the city of New Orleans has heretofore been 
vested by law, in a board of aldermen and a board of assistant aldermen, 
who together formed the common council of the city. This power is now 
suspended. The seats of the aldermen and assistant aldermen have all been 
vacated ; one class of them by the expiration of their term of office, and the 
remainder by their neglect to take the oath of allegiance to the United 
States, as required by General Order No. 41 of the commanding general of 
this department. 

'"Believing that the inconvenience incident to a temporary suspension 
of legislative power will be slight compared with the evils which have here- 
tofore been consequent on excessive and frequently corrupt legislation, these 
vacancies will not be filled until such time as there shall be a sufficient num- 
ber of the citizens of New Orleans loyal to their country and their constitu- 
tion to entitle them to resume the right of self-government. 



rHE SHEEP AXD THE GOATb. 



453 



" So much of the executive power of the city as has heretofore been vest- 
ed in the mayor. Trill, for the present, be exercised by the military com- 
mandant of New Orleans. 

"A 'bureau of finance' is hereby constituted, composed of a board of 
three persons, one of whom shall be the chairman of the board, to be ap- 
pointed by the military commandant, with such clerks as may from time to 
time be found necessary, and may be appointed by the chairman of the 
board, subject to the approval of the military commandant. The duties of 
said bureau shall be the same as those which — under the act approved 
March 20, 1856, and under other laws constituting the charter of said city 
of New Orleans, and under the ordinances of the city now in force — have 
been attributed to the several committees on finance, fire, police, judi- 
ciary, claims, education, and health, in the board of aldermen and in the 
board of assistant aldermen of the common council of New Orleans. The 
offices of said bureau shall be in the City Hall. 

" A *" bureau of streets and landings,' consisting of three persons, one of 
whom shall be chairman, is hereby constituted. The duties of said bureau 
shall be the same which, under the charters, laws and ordinances of the city 
of New Orleans, have been appropriated to the several committees on streets 
and landings, workhouses and prisons, and house of refuge, in the board of 
aldermen and board of assistant aldermen. The office of said bureau 
shall be in the City Hall, and the chairman shall appoint, subject to the ap- 
proval of the military commandant, the necessary clerks, whose compensa- 
tion will be fixed by the bureau, subject to the same approval. 

" The following named persons will constitute the bureau of finance : E. 
H. Durell, chairman ; D. S. Dewees, Stoddart Howell. 

" The following named persons will constitute the bureau of streets and 
landings: Julian Neville, chairman; Edward Ames, Benjamin Campbell. 
" By order. G. F. Shepley, 

" Military Commandant of Xew Orleans. 

" Approved and ordered. B. F. Butlee, 

" Major- General Commanding Department of the Gulf." 

The consuls, as usual, had something to say to the general upon 
the new topic. " If General Butler rides up Canal street," said the 
Delta, " the consuls are sure to come in a body, and ' protest' that 
he did not ride doicn. If he smokes a pipe in the morning, he is 
sure to have a deputation in the evening, asking why he did not 
smoke a cigar. If he drinks coffee, they will send some rude mes- 
senger with a note asking, in the name of some tottering dynasty, 
why he did not drink tea." The consuls did not gain much glory 
in this new contest with the general. 



454 



THE SHEEP AND THE GOATS. 



THE CONSULS TO GENEEAL BUTLEE. 

" New Okleans, June — , 1862. 
"To Major-General B. F. Butlee, Commanding Department of the G-ulf: 

"Genebal: — The undersigned, foreign consuls, accredited to the United 
States, have the honor to represent that General Order No. 41, under date 
of 10th instant, contains certain clauses against which they deem it their 
duty to protest, not only in order to comply with their obligations as repre- 
sentatives of their respective governments, now at peace and in friendly 
relations with the United States, but also to protect, by all possible means, 
such of their fellow -citizens as may be morally or materially injured by the 
execution of an order which they consider as contrary both to that justice 
which they have a right to expect at the hands of the government of the 
United States, and to the laws of nations. 

"The 'Order' contains two oaths: one, applicable both to the native 
born and to such foreigners as have not claimed and received a protection 
from their government, &c. ; the second applicable, it would seem, to such 
foreigners as may have claimed and received the above protection : thus, 
unnaturalized foreigners are divided into two categories, a distinction which 
the undersigned can not admit. 

"The 'Order' says that the required 'oath will not be, as it has never 
been, forced upon any;' that 'it is too sacred an obligation, too exalted in 
its tenure, and brings with it too many benefits and privileges, to be pro- 
faned by unwilling lip-service;' that 'all persons shall be deemed to have 
been citizens of the United States who shall have been resident therein for 
the space of five years and upward, and, if foreign born, shall not have 
claimed and received a protection of their government, duly signed and 
registered by the proper officer, more than sixty days previous to the publi- 
cation of this order.' 

" Whence it follows that foreigners are placed on the same footing with 
the native born and naturalized citizens, and in the alternative either of be- 
ing deprived of their means of existence or forced implicitly to take the re- 
quired oath, if they wish to ask and do receive ' any favor, protection, privi- 
lege, passport, or to have money paid them, property or other valuable 
thing whatever delivered fco them, or any benefit of the power of the United 
States extended to them, except protection from personal violence.' 

"Now, of course, when a foreigner does not wish to submit to the laws 
of the country of which he is a resident, he is invariably and everywhere at 
liberty to leave that country. But here he does not even enjoy that privi- 
lege; for to leave he must procure a passport, to obtain which he must 
take an oath that he is unwilling to take ; and yet that oath ' is so sacred 
and so exalted in its tenure that it must not be profaned by unwilling li>>- 
service.' 



; 

\ 



THE SHEEP AND THE GOATS. 



455 



" It is true that the ' Order' excepts those foreigners who claimed and re- 
ceived the protection of their government more than sixty days previous to 
its publication; but this exception is merely nominal, because the very 
great majority of foreigners never had any cause hitherto, in this country, 
to ask, and therefore to receive, ' a protection of their government.' Be- 
sides, this exception implies an interference with the interior administratior 
of foreign governments — an act contrary to the laws of nations. Whether 
the foreign residents have or have not complied with the laws and edicts 
of their own governments is a matter between them and their consuls, and 
the undersigned deny the right of any foreign power to meddle with, and 
still less to enforce, the laws of their respective countries, as far as their 
fellow-citizens are concerned. When a consul extends the high protection 
of his government to such of his countrymen as are neither naturalized nor 
charged with any breach of the laws of the country in which they reside, 
he is to be supported by a friendly government ; for it is a law in all civil- 
ized countries, that if foreigners must submit to the laws of the country in 
which they reside, they, and a fortiori their consuls, must, in exchange of 
that respect for those laws, receive due protection, that protection, in fact, 
which the foreigners have invariably enjoyed in this country up to the 
present time. Now, foreigners are deprived of that protection unless they 
become citizens of the United States; and this is done without a warning 
and in opposition to the laws of the United States concerning the mode in 
which foreigners may become citizens of this country. The undersigned 
must remark that a just law can have no retroactive action, and can be en- 
forced only from the day of its promulgation, while the order requires that 
acts should have been done, the necessity of which was unforeseen, especial- 
ly in this country. 

"The required oath is contrary not only to the rights, duty and dignity 
of foreigners^ who are all 'free born,' but also to the dignity of the govern 
ment of the United States, and even to the spirit of the order itself. 

"1. Because it virtually forces a certain class of foreigners, in order to 
save their property, to swear 'true faith and allegiance' to the United 
States, and thereby to ' renounce and abjure' that true faith and allegiance 
which they owe to their own country only, while naturalization is and can 
be but an act of free will; and because it is disgraceful for any 'free man' 
to do, through motives of material interest, those moral acts which are re- 
pugnant to his conscience. 

"If the order merely required the English oath of 'allegiance,' it might 
be argued, according to the definition given by Blackstone (I., p. 370), that 
eaid oath signifies only the submission of foreigners to the police laws of 
the country in which they reside ; but the oath, as worded in the ' order, 
is a virtual act of naturalization. A citizen of the United States might 
ta&e the oath, although Art. 6 of the Federal Constitution and the act of 



456 



THE SHEEP AND THE GOATS. 



Congress of June 1, 1789, do not require as much. But no consideration 
can compel a foreigner to take such an oath. 

" 2. Because, if according to the order the ' highest title known was real- 
ly that of an American citizen,' it would be the very reason why it should 
be sought after and not imposed upon the unwilling, whether openly or 
impliedly. 

"3. Because, while the order advocates the ' neutrality imposed upon 
foreigners by their sovereigns,' it virtually tends to violate that neutrality, 
not by forcing them openly to take up arms and bravely shed their blood 
in defense even of a cause that is not their own, but by enjoining upon 
them, if they wish to redeem their property, to descend to the level of spies 
and denunciators for the benefit of the United States. 

"The undersigned will close by remarking that their countrymen, since 
the beginning of this war, have been neutral. As such they can not be con- 
sidered and treated as a conquered population. The conquered may be 
submitted to exceptional laws ; but neutral foreigners have a right to be 
treated as they have always been by the government of the United States. 
" We have the honor to be, General, your most obedient servants, 

" Juan Callejon, Consul de Espana. 

" Ch. Mejan, French Consul. 

" Jos. Detnoodt, Consul of Belgium. 

"M. W. Benachi, Greek Consul. 

" Joseph Lanata, Consul of Italy . 

"B. Teryaghi, Yice-Consul. 

" Ad. Piaget, Swiss Consul." 

A little bird whispered in the ear of General Butler that the 
author of this letter was Mr. George Coppell, whose papers had 
not yet arrived, and whose signature, therefore, did not appear. 

GENERAL butler to the consuls. 

" Head-quarters, Department of the Gulf, 
"New Orleans, La., June 16, 1862. 
" Gentlemen : — Your protest against General Order No. 41 has been re 
ceived. 

" It appears more like a labored argument, in which the imagination has 
been drawn on for the facts to support it. "Were it not that some of the 
idiomatic expressions of the document show that it was composed by some 
one born in the English tongue, I should have supposed that many of the 
misconceptions of the purport of the order, which appear in the protest, 
arose from an imperfect acquaintance with the peculiarities of our language. 

" As it is, I am obliged to believe that the faithlessness of the English- 



THE SHEEP AND THE GOATS. 



457 



man who transmitted the order to you and wrote the protest, will account 
for the misapprehensions under which you labor in regard to its terms. 
" The order prescribes — 

"1. A form of oath to be taken by those who claim to be citizens of the 
United States, and those only who desire to hold office, civil or military, 
under the laws of the United States, or who desire some act to be done in 
their favor by the officers of the United States in this department, other 
than protection from personal violence, which is afforded to all. 

" With that oath, of course, the alien has nothing to do. 

"But there is a large class of foreign born persons here who, by their* 
acts, have lost their nationalities. 

"Familiar examples of that class are those subjects of France who, in 
contravention of the ''Code Civile? have, without authorization by the 
emperor, joined themselves to a military organization of a foreign state 
(s 1 affilierait a une corporation militaire etrangere), or received milita- 
ry commissions (fonctions publiques, conferees par un gouvernement Stran- 
ger) from the governor thereof, or who have left France without intention 
of returning (sans esprit de retour), or, as in the case of the Greek consul, 
have taken the office of opener and examiner of letters in the post-office of 
the Confederate States, or the Prussian consul, who is still leading a re- 
cruited body of his countrymen in the rebel army. 

" As many of such aliens had been naturalized, and many of the bad 
men among them had concealed the fact of their naturalization, it became 
necessary, in order to meet the case of these bad men, to prescribe some 
rule by which those foreign born who might not be entitled to the protec- 
tion of their several governments, or had heretofore become naturalized 
citizens of the United States, might be distinguished from those foreigners 
who were still to be treated as neutrals. 

" This rule must be a comprehensive one and one easily to be understood, 
because it was for the guidance of subordinate officers, who should be call- 
ed upon to administer the proper oath. 

"Therefore, it was provided that all who had resided here five years — a 
length of time which would seem to be sufficient evidence that they had 
not the intention of returning (esprit de retour), and who should not have, 
in that time, claimed certificate of nationality, called commonly a ' pro 
tection' of their government, should, for this purpose, be deemed prima 
facie, of course, American citizens, and should, if they desired any favor 
or protection of the government, save from violence, take the oath of alle- 
giance. But it is complained that the order farther provides that they must 
have received that 'protection' sixty days previous to the date of the order 
so as to have the ' protection' avail them. 

" The reason of this limitation was that, as some of the consuls had gone 
to the rebel army, and some of the consuls had been aiding the rebellion 



458 



THE SHEEP AM) THE GOATS. 



here, and as ' protections' had been given by some of the consuls to those who 
were not entitled to them, for the purpose of enabling the holders to evade 
the blockade, it was necessary to make some limitations to secure good faith. 

"Indeed, gentlemen, you will remember that all rules and regulations are 
made to restrain bad men, and not the good. 

" For instance, if I allowed the 1 protections' given now to avail for this 
purpose, that Prussian consul might give them to the whole of his militia 
company that live to get back ; and they might come, claiming to be neutrals, 
as did that British Guard who sent their arms and equipments to Beauregard. 

" The naturalization laws of the United States were in abeyance for want 
of United States courts here. Their provisions permitted all foreigners 
who had resided here five years and not claimed protection of their govern- 
ment, who felt disposed to avail themselves of them, to become entitled 
to the high privileges of an American citizen, which so many foreign- 
ers value so greatly that they leave their own prosperous, peaceful, and 
happy countries to come and live here, even although allowed to enjoy 
those privileges in a limited degree only. So greatly do they compliment 
us upon our laws that they prefer to, and insist upon, stopping here, even 
at the risk of being exposed to the chances of our intestine war, which 
chances they seem willing to take, in preference to living in peace at home, 
under laws enacted by their own. sovereigns. But it is said that, unless for- 
eigners take the oath of allegiance, they will not be allowed a 'passport.' 

; ' This is an entire mistake, and probably comes from confounding a 'pass' 
through my lines, which I grant or withhold for military reasons, with a 
'passport,' which must be given a foreigner by his own government. 

" The order refuses all k passports' to American citizens who do not take 
the oath of allegiance ; but it nowhere meddles with the ' passports' of for- 
eigners, with which I have nothing to do. 
; " There is nothing compulsory about this order. 

" If a foreigner desires the privileges which the military government of 
this department accords to American citizens, let him take the oath of alle- 
giance ; but that does not naturalize him. If he does not wish to do so, 
but chooses to be an honest neutral, then let him not take the oath of alle- 
giance, but the other oath set forth in the order. 

k 'If he chooses to do neither, but simply to remain here with protection 
from personal violence, a privilege he has not enjoyed in this city for many 
years until now, let him be quiet, live on, keep away from his consul, and 
be happy. For honest alien neutrals another oath was provided, which, in 
my judgment, contains nothing but what an honest and honorable neutral 
will do and maintain, and, of course, only that which he will promise to do. 

" But it is said that this oath compels every "foreigner to descend to the 
level of spies and denunciators for the benefit of the United States.' 

" There is no possible just construction of language which will give any 



THE SHEEP AND THE GOATS. 



459 



such interpretation to the order. This mistake arises from a misconception 
of the meaning of the word 'conceal,' so false, so gross, so unjust and illit- 
erate, that in the Englishman who penned the protest sent to me it must 
have been intentional, but an error into which those not born and reaied 
in the idioms of our language might easily have fallen. 

" The oath requires him who takes it not to ' conceal' any wrong that 
has been, or is about to be done, in aid or comfort of the enemies of the 
United States. 

u It has been read and translated to you as if it required you to reveal all 
such acts. ' Conceal' is a verb active in our language ; ' concealment' is an 
act done, not a thing suffered by, the ' concealers.' 

"Let me illustrate this difference of meaning : 

" If I am passing about and see a thief picking the pocket of my neigh- 
bor, and I say nothing about it unless called upon by a proper tribunal, 
that is not ' concealment' of the theft ; but if I throw my cloak over the 
thief to screen him from the police-officer while he does it, I then ' conceal' 
the theft. Again, if I know that my neighbor is about to join the rebel army, 
and I go about my usual business, I do not ' conceal' the fact ; but if, upon 
being inquired of by the proper authority as to where my neighbor is about to 
go, I say that he is going to sea, I then ' conceal' his acts and intentions. 

" Now, if any citizen or foreigner means to ' conceal' rebellious or traitor- 
ous acts against the United States, in the sense above given, it will be much 
more for his personal comfort that he gets out of this department at once. 

"Indeed, gentlemen, if any subject of a foreign state does not like our 
laws, or the administration of them, he has an immediate, effectual, and £p- 
propriate remedy in his own hands, alike pleasant to him and to us ; and 
that is, not to annoy his consul with complaints of those laws or the ad- 
ministration of them, or his consul wearying the authorities with verbose 
protests, but simply to go home — ' stay not on the order of his going, 
but go at once.' Such a person came here without our invitation ; he will 
be parted with without our regrets. 

" But he must not have committed crimes against our laws, and then ex- 
pect to be allowed to go home to escape the punishment of those crimes. 

" I must beg, gentlemen, that no more argumentative protests against 
my orders be sent to me by you as a body. If any consul has anything to 
offer for my consideration, he will easily learn the proper mode of present- 
ing it. It is no part of your duties or your rights. 

"I have, gentlemen, the honor to be your obedieDt servant, 

"Be:nj. F. Btttlee, Major-General Commanding. 

"Messrs. Oh. Mejan, French Consul; Jtjax Callejo^", Consul de Espa- 
na; Jos. Deyitoodt, Consul of Belgium; M. W. Benachi, Greek Consul; 
Joseph Lanata, Consul of Italy; B. Tekyaghi, Vice-Consul; Ad. Piaget, 
Swiss Consul." 

20 



460 



THE SHEEP AXD THE GOATS. 



Mr. Coppell had a word to say in his own name : 

me. ooppell to gexeeal btjtleb. 

"Beitish Consulate, 
"New Oeleaxs, La., June 14, 1862. 

" Sie : — I beg to inform you that great doubt exists in the minds of British 
subjects, who. under the provisions of your Order No. 41, are called upon 
to subscribe the oaths therein set forth, as to the consequences of compli- 
ance with the behe sts of that order. 

" I would therefore respectfully request that you will inform me whether 
the oath prescribe'! in the first instance is intended, or, in your understand- 
ing, can be construed to affect the natural allegiance they owe to the gov- 
ernment of their nativity. 

" Objections have also been very generally urged against the oath pre- 
scribed to duly registered aliens, on the ground that it imposes on them 
(in words, at least) the office of spy, and forces them to acts inconsistent 
with the ordinary obligations of probity, honor and neutrality. 

" Hoping that I may receive such explanations as may obviate the diffi- 
culties suggested, I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, 

" GrEOEGE OOPPELL, 

" Her Britannic Majesty's Acting Consul." 

EEPLY FEOM HEAD-QTJAETEES. 

" HeAD-QUAETEES, DEPAETMEXT OF THE GrOXF, 

" New Oeleaxs, La., June 14, 1862. 
" Srs: — I am directed by the major-general commanding to inform you 
that no answer is to be given to the note of George Coppell, Esq., of this, 
date, until his credentials and pretensions are recognized by his own gov- 
ernment and the government of the United States. All attempts at official 
action on Mr. Coppell's part must cease. His credentials have been sought 
for, but not exhibited. I have the honor to hp 

" Your obedient servant, 

"P. Haogeett, 
" Captain and Assistant Adjutant- General." 

Mr. Coppell, however, received another answer. To complete 
the discomfiture of the consuls, General Butler employed one of 
his very happiest expedients — a measure at once so just and so 
witty, as to extort grim laughter and sulky approval from the 
sourest rebels. The following general order appeared three days 
after the date of the general's reply to the consuls: 



THE SHEEP AXD THE GOATS. 



461 



"Xew Oeleans, June 19, 1862. 

"Geneeal Oedee Xo. 42. 

" The commanding general lias received information that certain of the 
foreign residents in this department, notwithstanding the explanations of 
the terms of the oath prescribed in General Order Xo. 41, contained in his 
reply to the foreign consuls, have still scruples about taking that oath. 

"Anxious to relieve the consciences of all who honestly entertain doubts 
upon this matter, and not to embarrass any, especially neutrals, by his 
necessary military orders, the commanding general hereby revises General 
Order Xo. 41, so far as to permit any foreign subject, at his election, to take 
and subscribe the following oath, instead of the oath as set forth : 

w I, : , do solemnly swear that I will, to the best of my ability, 

support, protect, and defend the constitution of the United States. So help 
me God ! 

'• [Traduction.] 

" Je, , jure solennelleroent, autant qu'il sera en moi, de soutenir, 

de maintenir. et de defendre la constitution des Etats-Unis. Que Dieu me 
soit en aide ! 

•'The general is sure that no foreign subject can object to this oath, as it 
is in the very words of the oath taken by every officer of the European 
brigade, prescribed more than a year ago in ' Les reglements de la Legion 
Frangaise, formee a la Xouvelle Orleans, le 26 d'Avril, 1881,' as will be seen 
by the extract below (page 22), and claimed as an act of the strictest neu. 
trality by the officers taking it, and, for more than a year, has passed by all 
the foreign consuls — so far as he is informed — without protest. 

■-Sermeiit que doivent; preter tons les officiers de la 'Legion Frangaise. ' 

" State of Louisiana. Paeish of Oeleasts. 

" I, •-, do solemnly swear that I will, to the best of ability, dis- 
charge the duties of of the French Legion, and that I will sup- 
port, protect, and defend the constitution of the state and of the Confederate 
States. So help me God ! 

" Sworn to and subscribed before me. 

" [Traduction.] 

u Etat de la Loutsiane, Paeoisse d'Oeleans. 

" Je, , jure solennellement de remplir, autant qu'il sera en moi, 

les devoirs de de la Legion Frangaise, etje promets de soutenir. 

de maintenir et de defendre la constitution de l'Etat et celle des Etats Oon- 
federes. Que Dieu me soit en aide ! 

" Assermente et signe devant moi." 

I think this must be pronounced the neatest hit of the kind on 
record. 



462 



THE SHEEP AND THE GOATS. 



The oath-taking, meanwhile, went vigorously on. On the 7th 
of August, Colonel French had the pleasure of reporting that the 
oath prescribed to citizens had been taken by 11,723 persons; 
the foreign neutrals' oath, by 2,499 persons ; and that 4,933 pri- 
vates and 211 officers of the Confederate army had given the 
required parole. 

This was the more gratifying from the fact, that the social influ- 
ence of the city was all employed against the taking of the oath. 
Ladies refused to receive gentlemen who were known to have 
taken it. Gentlemen were notified to leave their boarding-houses 
who had thus avowed their attachment to the Union. Books were 
kept, by noted secessionists, in which the names of such were re- 
corded for future vengeance. Men who were accused of having 
taken the oath thought it necessary, in some instances, to resent 
the charge as a calumny.* Others who had recently taken it, 

* A perfectly well-informed officer related the following incidents : 

" Holt's drinking-saloon was one of the most fashionable in the city. The proprietor, the son 
of the famous New York hotel-keeper of that name, kept fast horses, a fashionable private resi- 
dence, and received his income by the hundred dollars a day. In an evil hour secession seized 
upon the land, and Holt was induced to issue siinplasters. His reputation for wealth and 
business profits made them popular, and inducements were held out for immense issues. 
Gradually, however, business fell off, and Holt, when General Butler ordered that personal 
paper money should be redeemed by bank-notes, found it impossible to comply with the procla- 
mation, and this inability was increased by the faci that he had taken the oath of allegiance, and 
his regular customers refused, therefore, to be comforted at his house. The finale was that Holt 
was sold out, and his establishment, repainted and restocked, opened under the auspices of one 
John Hawkins. To give the place the due amount of eclat, Captain Clark, of the Delta, know- 
ing that it was against the law for any one to sell liquor in the city, unless by a person who had 
taken the oath of allegiance and obtained a license, caused it to be published that at last our citi- 
zens were blessed with a 'Union drinking-saloon,' and at the same time invited all persons who 
loved the stars and stripes to patronize this new establishment. 

" This flattering notice fell upon John Hawkins as a thunderbolt ; he frantically rushed over 
to the newspaper office and protested that he was a rebel, and that he relied upon his secession 
friends for patronage; he declared that he was a ruined man unless something was done to im- 
mediately purge his fair fame of any taint of loyalty to his native land. Captain Clark, who 
fully appreciated the unfortunate publican's feelings, and with the spirit and liberality of a 
chivalrous editor, offered his columns for an explanation, which offer resulted in the publication 
of the following card: 

"'Hawkins House. 
• ' 7 ? the Editor of the Nmc Orleans Delta : 

■• 'The editorial statement in your journal of this morning, to the effect that I have taken the 
oath of allegiance, is a fabrication. John Hawkins. 

" ' New Orleans, July 17, 1862.' 

•'Secessia was delighted; John's friends crowded his precincts all day, and drank to John's 
health, and at John's expense. The dawn of the following morning promised a brilliant future ; 
but, alas ! Deputy provost-marshal Colonel Stafford, whose business it is to see that public 
drinking-house keepers hovoe taken the oath of allegiance, sent after Mr. Hawkins, and asked him 
what right he had keep a shop open without a license, and farther inquired if John did not 



THE SHEEP AND THE GOATS. 



463 



boasted that they had done so only to secure the temporary ad- 
vantages attached to the act, and avowed their readiness to take 
as many oaths as Picayune Butler thought it necessary to impose ; 
as no faith was to be kept with Yankees. All these things were 
noted by General Butler, who " bided his time." 

Another of the general's precautionary measures, was the dis- 
arming of New Orleans. The city was full of arms. Nearly every N 
house, of any pretensions, contained some, and nearly every well- 
dressed man carried a weapon of some kind. At first, the general 
had no intention of depriving private persons of their arms, since 
he had assured the public, in his proclamation, that private property 
should, be respected. Under the general order, commanding the 
disclosure and surrender of Confederate property, a considerable 
quantity of arms and munitions of war were seized; but the most 
virulent of the rebels were still allowed the inestimable privilege of 
carrying a pocketful of revolvers, and a bowie-knife parallel to the 
back bone. The event which led to the universal disarming of the 
city was this : In August, on the bloody field of Baton Rouge, were 
found dead and wounded citizens of Baton Rouge, wearing still 
their usual arms, who, on the very evening before the attack, had 
mingled familiarly with the officers of the Union army, and who, on 
the approach of Breckinridge, had hastened to join his troops, and 
to engage in the conflict. Lieutenant Weitzel reported this sig- 
nificant fact to General Butler, who immediately determined to 
compel the surrender of every private weapon in New Orleans. 
The requisite orders were issued; arms in great quantities were 
brought in and safely deposited ; for all of which receipts were given. 

The French consul objected, of course. His protest had only the 
effect of adding one more to General Butler's amusing consular 
letters. 

the french consul to lieutenant weitzel. 

" Feench Consulate at New Orleans, 
"New Orleans, August 12, 1862. 
" Sir : — The new order of the day, which has been published this morn 
ing, and by which you require that all and whatever arms which may be 

know that he could not get a license unless he took oath to be a good citizen under the national 
government. This interference on the part of General Butler and his subordinates with the un- 
alienable rights of Secessia has, of course, thrown a new brand of discord into the community, and 
the fearful catastrophe seems impending, that will compel the habitues of the fashionable driak- 
ing-saloons to have the slow poison dealt out by loyal citizens." 



464 



THE SHEEP AND THE GOATS. 



in the ^ssession of the people of this city, must be delivered up, has caused 
the most serious alarm among the French subjects of ISTew Orleans. 

"Foreigners, sir, and particularly Frenchmen, have, notwithstanding the 
accusations brought against some of them by certain persons, sacrificed 
everything to maintain, during the actual conflict, the neutrality imposed 
upon them. 

"When arms were delivered them by the municipal authorities, they only 
used them to maintain order and defend personal property ; and those arms 
have since been almost all returned. 

"And it now appears, according to the tenor of your order of to-day, 
that French subjects, as well as citizens, are required to surrender their 
personal arms, which could only be used in self-defense. 

"For some time past, unmistakable signs have manifested themselves 
among the servile population of the city and surrounding country, of their 
intention to break the bonds which bind them to their masters, and many 
persons apprehend an actual revolt. 

"It is these signs, this prospect of finding ourselves completely unarmed, 
in the presence of a population from which the greatest excesses are feared, 
that we are above all things justly alarmed ; for the result of such a state 
of things would fall on all alike who were left without the means of self- 
defense. 

" It is not denied that the protection of the United States government 
would be extended to them in such an event, but that protection could not 
be effective at all times and in all places, nor provide against those internal 
enemies, whose unrestrained language and manners are constantly increas- 
ing, and who are but partially kept in subjection by the conviction that 
their masters are armed. 

"I submit to you, sir, these observations, with the request that you take 
them into consideration. 

" Please accept, sir, the assurance of my high esteem. 

" The Consul of France, 

" Count Mejan. 

"Lieutenant Weitzel, U. S. Engineers, and Assistant Military Com- 
mandant of New Orleans.' 1 '' 

general butler to the french consul. 

" Head-qtjarters, Department of the Gulf, 
" New Orleans, August 14, 1862. 
"Sir: — Your official note to Lieutenant Weitzel has been forwarded 
to me. 

" I see no just cause of complaint against the order requiring the arms 
©f private citizens to be given up. It is the usual course pursued in cities 



THE SHEEP AND THE GOATS. 



465 



similarly situated to this, even without any exterior force in the neigh- 
borhood. 

" You will observe that it will not do to trust to mere professions of neu- 
trality. I trust most of your countrymen are in good faith neutral ; but it 
is unfortunately true that some of them are not. This causes the good, of 
necessity, to suffer for the acts of the bad. 

• ' I take leave to call your attention to the fact, that the United State 
forces gave every immunity to Monsieur Bonnegrass, who claimed to bt. 
the French consul at Baton Rouge ; allowed him to keep his arms, and re- 
lied upon his neutrality ; but his son was taken prisoner on the battle-field 
in arms against us. 

" You will also do me the favor to remember that very few of the French 
subjects here have taken the oath of neutrality, which was offered to, but 
not required of them, by my Order No. 41, although all the officers of the 
French Legion had, with your knowledge and assent, taken the oath to 
support the constitution of the Confederate States. Thus you see I have 
no guarantee for the good faith of bad men. 

"I do not understand how it is that arms are altered in their effective- 
ness by being 'personal property,' nor do I see' how arms which will serve 
for personal defense ('qui ne peuvent servir que pour leur defense person - 
nelle'), can not be as effectually used for offensive warfare. 

" Of the disquiet of which you say there are signs manifesting them- 
selves among the black population, from a desire to break their bonds. 
(' certaines dispositions a rompre les nens qui les attach ent a leurs maitres'), 
I have been a not inattentive observer, without wonder, because it would 
seem natural, when their masters had set them the example of rebellion 
against constituted authorities, that the negroes, being an imitative race, 
should do likewise. 

" But surely the representative of the emperor, who does not tolerate 
( slavery in France, does not desire his countrymen to be armed for the pur- 
pose of preventing the negroes from breaking their bonds. 

" Let me assure you that the .protection of the United States against vio- 
lence, either by negroes or white men, whether citizens or foreign, will 
continue to be as perfect as it has been since our advent here ; and far 
more so, manifesting itself at all moments and everywhere (' tous les in- 
stants et partout'), than any improvised citizens' organization can be. 

"Whenever the inhabitants of this city will, by a public and united act, 
show both their loyalty and neutrality, I shall be glad of their aid to keep 
the peace, and indeed to restore the city to them. Till that time, however, 
I must require the arms of all the inhabitants, white and black, to be 
under my control. I have the honor to be, your obedient servant, 

"Benj. F. Btttlek, Major- General Commanding. 

" To Count Mejan, French Consul." 



466 



THE SHEEP AND THE GOATS. 



To secure the surrender of arms still secreted, the following 
stringent general order was issued : 

"New Oeleans, August 16, 1862. 
" Ordered, That after Tuesday, 19th inst., there be paid fo- information 
leading to the discovery of weapons not held under a written permit from 
the United States authorities, but retained and concealed by the keeperf 



thereof, the sums following : 

For each serviceable gun, musket or rifle $ 10 

" revolver 7 

" pistol 5 

" sabre or officer's sword 5 

" dirk, dagger, bowie-knife or sword-cane 3 



" Said arms to be confiscated, and the keeper so concealing them to be 
punished by imprisonment. 

" The crime being an overt act of rebellion against the authority of the 
United States, whether by a citizen or an alien, works a forfeiture of the 
property of the offender, and, therefore, every slave giving information that 
shall discover the concealed arms of his or her master, shall be held to be 
emancipated. 

" II. As the United States authorities have disarmed the inhabitants of 
the parish of Orleans, and as some fearful citizens seem to think it neces 
sary that they should have arms to protect themselves from violence, it is 

ordered, 

"That hereafter, the offenses of robbery by violence or aggravates 
assault that ought to be replied by the use of deadly weapons, burglaries 
rapes and murders, whether committed by blacks or whites, will be, on con 
viction, punished by death." 

Union men, known and tried, were permitted to keep their arms, 
To one or two old soldiers of the war of 1812, the privilege was 
accorded of retaining the weapons once honorably borne in the ser- 
vice of their country. Many weapons were, doubtless, still secre- 
ted ; but, for all purposes of co-operation with an attacking force, 
New Orleans was disarmed. The whole number of surrendered 
weapons was about six thousand. 



THE CONFISCATION ACT. 



407 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE CONFISCATION ACT. 

The act of Congress confiscating the property of rebellions citi- 
zens was approved July 17th. 

Before the passage of the act, General Butler had taken the 
liberty to " sequester" the estates of those two notorious traitors, 
General Twiggs and John Slidell, both of whom possessed large 
property in New Orleans. These estates he held for the adjudica- 
tion of the government, and, in the mean time, selected the spacious 
mansion of General Twiggs for his own residence and that of a 
portion of his staff. Among the papers found in this house were 
certain letters which tended to show that Twiggs had sought the 
command in Texas with a view to the betrayal of his trust, a crime 
only once paralleled in the history of the country. Twiggs fled 
from New Orleans on the approach of the fiee^, conscious that 
such turpitude as his could not fail to meet its just retribution. He 
died soon after, but not before he had heard that the flag of his be- 
trayed country floated over his residence as the head-quarters of 
the army of occupation. 

Three swords, presented to him for his gallantry in Mexico, one 
by Congress, one by the state of Georgia, his native state, one by 
Augusta, his native city, were left behind in the custody of a 
young lady, and fell into the hands of General Butler. The young 
lady claimed them as her own. She said that General Twiggs had 
given them to her on new-year's day, with a box of family silver, 
alleging as a reason for this strange gift the recent death of a be- 
oved niece to whom he had previously bequeathed them. Three 
facts were elicited which induced the general to set aside her claim. 
One was, that Twiggs had brought the articles to the young lady's 
residence, not on new-year's day, but at the moment of his flight 
from the city. Another was, that she had never mentioned so ex- 
traordinary a present to any member of her family — as appeared 
on the separate examination of each. Another was, that General 
Twiggs had left with the articles the document following: "I 
20* 



468 



THE CONFISCATION ACT. 



leave my swords to Miss Rowena Florence," and box of silver. 
New Orleans, April 25, 1862. D. E. Twiggs :" which was hastily 
written in the carriage at the door. 

General Butler ventured to disbelieve Miss Rowena Florence, 
and sent the swords to the president of the United States. He 
suggested that the one presented by congress should be given to 
some officer distinguished in the war ; that the one given by the 
state of Georgia, should be deposited at the military academy at 
West Point, with a suitable inscription, as a warning to the cadets ; 
and that the third should be placed in the patent office as a me- 
mento of the folly of such an " invention " as secession. In for- 
warding the swords to congress, the president remarked, that if 
either of them were presented to an officer of the army, " General 
Butler is entitled to the first consideration." 

The sword voted by Kentucky to General Zachary Taylor, was 
rescued by General Butler from disloyal hands in New Orleans. 
He sent it to the son of the late president — Brigadier-General Jo- 
seph Taylor of the Union army. 

The confiscation act, it will be remembered, divided rebels into 
two classes. The property of one class was to be confiscated at 
once, or as soon as it fell into the possession of the United States ; 
the property of the other class was to be confiscated after sixty 
days' warning. The first class consisted of all military and naval 
officers commanding rebels in arms ; the president, vice president, 
judges, members of congress, cabinet ministers, foreign emissaries, 
and other agents of the Confederate States ; the governors and 
judges of seceded states ; in short, all who hold office under the 
Confederate government, or under the government of a seceded 
state, as well as citizens of loyal states who gave aid and comfort 
to the rebellion. The second class included the great mass of the 
privates in the Confederate army and navy, and all unofficial abet- 
tors of the rebellion. The property of these last was to be de- 
clared confiscated sixty days after the date of the president's proc- 
lamation warning them to lay down their arms and return to their 
allegiance. As this proclamation was issued on the 25th of July 
the days of grace expired on the 23d of September. 

With this explanation, the reader will understand the object of 
the following general order, and will be able to imagine its effect 
lpon the secessionists of New Orleans : 



THE CONFISCATION ACT. 



469 



"New Okleans, Sept. 13, 1862. 
" As in the course of ten days it may become necessary to distinguish the 
disloyal from the loyal citizens and honest neutral foreigners residing in 
this department : 

" It is ordered, That each neutral foreigner, resident in this department, 
shall present himself, with the evidence of his nationality, to the nearest 
provost-marshal for registration of himself and his family. 

" This registration shall include the following particulars : 

"The country of birth. 

" The length of time the person has resided within the United States. 
" The names of his family. 

" The present place of residence, by street, number or other description. 
"The occupation. 

" The date of protection or certificate of nationality, which shall be in- 
dorsed by the passport-clerk, 'registered,' with date of register. 

" All false or simulated claims of foreign allegiance, by native or natural- 
ized citizens, will be severely punished." 

This premonition of coming retribution called attention anew to 
the clause of the confiscation act which declared all conveyances of 
property made after the expiration of the sixty days to be void. 
Instantly there began such a universal transferring of property as 
no city had ever before seen. Property was given away ; proper- 
ty was sold for next to nothing ; all the known expedients for get- 
ting rid of property were employed ; until it seemed probable that 
by the 23d of September, not a rebel in New Orleans would be 
found to possess anything whatever, and the entire wealth of the 
city w ould be held by that portion of the people who had taken the 
oath of allegiance, or by parties at a great distance, and inaccessi- 
ble, or by minors and women. General Butler determined to use 
his autocratic authority to put a stop to these fictitious transfers. 
The following general order accomplished this purpose. 

"New Oeleans, Sept. 1862. 

"L All transfers of property, or rights of property, real, mixed, persona) 
or incorporeal, except necessary food, medicine and clothing, either by 
way of sale, gift, pledge, payment, lease or loan, by an inhabitant of this 
department, who has not returned to his or her allegiance to the United 
States (having once been a citizen thereof), are forbidden and void, and 
the person transferring and the person receiving shall be punished by fine 
or imprisonment, or both. 

" II. All registers of the transfer of certificates of stock or shares in an/ 



470 



THE CONFISCATION ACT. 



incorporated or joint-stock company or association, in which any inhabitant 
of this department, who has not returned to his or her allegiance to the 
United States (having once been a citizen thereof), has any interest, are 
forbidden, and the clerk or other officer making or recording tne transfer 
will be held equally guilty with the transferrer." 

And more. Some wise men of New Orleans, foreseeing the evil, 
had long ago reduced themselves to fictitious beggary. The de- 
cisions of Mr. Reverdy Johnson, sustained by the government, had 
given rise to the impression that papers made out in the forms of 
law, would be permitted to nullify an act of Congress, as well as 
set at naught the decrees of General Butler. Many men of wealth 
had acted upon this impression, " making over " valuable estates to 
others, for considerations that were ridiculously small. General 
Butler seized and " sequestered" some property thus transferred, 
holding it for the government to decide upon the legality of such 
proceedings. One noted case of this kind he selected as a test, 
and submitted it to the secretary of state. The dispatch in which 
the particulars were detailed, shall be presented here, for the light 
it throws upon the state of things in New Orleans and the peculiar 
difficulties of General Butler's position. It is fair to guess that 
this dispatch had something to do with General Butler's recall from 
the Department of the Gulf, — a measure which was not suggested 
by the president. 

general butler to mr. seward. 

"Head-quarters, Department of the Gulf, 
"New Orleans, September 19, 1862. 
" Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State : 

'' Sir : — I have the honor to report to you the following facts : 

" 0. McDonald Fago, a British subject, resident many years in New Or- 
leans, is about to make claim to the property of Wright & Allen in New 
Orleans, which has been taken possession of by the United States authori- 
ties here under the following state of facts : 

" Wright & Allen are cotton-brokers, who claim to have property outside 
of New Orleans of two millions of dollars. They are most rabid rebels, 
and were of those who published a card advising the planters not to send 
forward their crop of cotton for the purpose of inducing foreign intervention. 

"Soon after we came to New Orleans, they mortgaged their real estate 
here, consisting of a house, for $60,000, to planters in the state of Arkansas, 
and then sold the equity, together with their furniture, for $5,000 to Mr. 
Fago ; paying about four thousand five hundred dollars per annum interest 



THE CONFISCATION ACT. 



41, 



on the property, and to receiye nothing. His only payment, however, was 
by his own note in twelve months, which was sent to their friend, the 
planter in Arkansas. 

;t "Wright & Allen were then openly boasting that they would not take 
the oath of allegiance to the United States, and were enconraging others to 
refuse and stand by secession. In order to divest themselves of the last 
vestige of visible property upon which the confiscation act could take effect, 
having given to the widow of their deceased partner, an Irish woman, a 
note or notes for three thousand five hundred dollars, they then sell her 
their plate for that amount, and then have it shipped under another name 
to Liverpool. 

■• A large number of others are following their example ; and, indeed, 
all the property of New Orleans is changing hands into those of foreigners 
and women, to avoid the consequences of the confiscation act. 

•'Believing all this to be deplorable, I have resolved to make this a test 
case, and have seized this property, and intend to hold it where it is until 
the matter can be submitted to the courts. 

u Mr. Fago has sent to Washington to have this property given up as a 
test case. If the course of authority here is interfered with in this case, it 
will be next to impossible to maintain order in this city. This Mr. Fago 
has first had a large amount of sugar, belonging to an aid of Governor 
Moore, given up to him by the decision of Eeverdy Johnson. Emboldened 
by this experiment he proposes to try once more. If successful, I should 
prefer that the government would get some one else to hold New Orleans 
instead of myself. Indeed, sir, I beg leave to add, that another such com- 
missioner as Mr. Johnson sent to New Orleans would render the city un- 
tenable. The town itself got into such a state while Mr. Johnson was 
here, that he confessed to me that he could hardly sleep from nervousness 
from fear of a rising, and hurried away, hardly completing his work, as 
soon as he heard Baton Rouge was about to be attacked. 

•• The result of his mission here has caused it to be understood that I am 
not supported by the government ; that I am soon to be relieved ; that all 
my acts are to be overhauled, and that a rebel may do anything he pleases 
in the city, as the worst may be a few days' imprisonment, when my sue 
cessor will come and he will be released. 

•• To such an extent has this thing gone, that inmates of the parish prison, 
sent there for grand larceny, robbery. &c, in humble imitation of the for- 
eign consuls, have agreed together to send an agent to Washington to ask 
for a commissioner to investigate charges made by these thieves against 
the provost-marshal, by whose vigilance they were detected. 

" Alexander the coppersmith, by his cry, 1 Great is Diana of the Ephe- 
sians' (' the institution of slavery is in danger'), did me much harm in 
Louisiana, from the effects of which I am just recovering ; and the only 



472 



THE*eOXFISCATION ACT. 



fear I now have is, that if the last accounts are true, Mr. Johnson will have 
so much more nervous apprehension for his personal safety in Baltimore 
than he had in New Orleans, that he will want to come back here, now the 
yellow fever season is over, as to a place of security.* 

" I have done myself the honor to make this detail of the case at length 
to the state department, so that all the facts are before it upon which I act. 
The inferences from those facts must, from the nature of testimony, be left 
to my judgment until the courts can act authoritatively in the matter. 

" Another reason why I have detailed the facts is, that in the reports of 
Mr. Johnson furnished to the consuls to be read here, every fact is re- 
pressed which would form a shadow of justification for my acts, and ex 
parte affidavits of parties accused by me of fraudulent transfers of large 
amounts of property are the sole basis of the report. 

True, by that report more than three-quarters of a million of specie 
is placed in the hands of one Forstall, a rebel, a leading member of the 
'Southern Independent Association,' a league wherein each member bound 
himself by a horrid and impious oath ' to resist unto death itself all attempts 
to restore the Union.' A confrere of Pierre Soule in the committee of the 
eity which destroyed more than ten millions of property by fire, to prevent 
its coming into the hands of the United States authorities, when the fleet 
passed the forts. 

"I beg of you, sir, to consider that I mention the characteristics of this 
report not in any tone of complaint of the state department. If it is neces- 
sary to suppress facts, to impugn the motives and disown the acts of a 
commanding officer of the army in the field, or to publish to those plotting 
the destruction of the republic, that he has had control of public affairs in 
New Orleans taken from him and transferred to a subordinate, because of 
the harshness of his administration, as was done in the dispatch to the 
minister of the Netherlands, even if the fact is not true, I bow to the 
mandate of ' state necessity' without a murmur. I have made larger sacri- 
fices than this for my country, and am prepared for still greater, if need be. 
but I only wish to make them when they will be useful, and therefore 
have painted the effect of the commission, report, and dispatch upon a tur 
bulent, rebellious, uneasy, excitable, vindictive, brutalized, half foreign 
population, maddened by exaggerated reports of the actions of their fellows, 
the fall of the national capital, the invasion of the North, and excited to 
insubordination by the double hope, that either by the success of the arms 
of their brethren, or the interference of the national executive in their be- 
half, they shall soon be released from the only government which has ever 
feeld the city in quiet order, or unplundering peace. Awaiting instructions. 
" I have the honor to be your obedient servant, 

"Benjamix F. Btjtlee, jlajor- General Commanding.' 1 ' 

* The rei el army was then in Maryland. 



THE CONFISCATION ACT. 



473 



This letter clearly marks the point of divergence between the 
two modes of dealing with the rebellion. As the reports of Mr. 
Johnston and the correspondence of Mr. Seward with Mr. Van Lim- 
burgh have been published, it is but fair that this dispatch should 
be also printed. Whether the confiscation act was a politic or an 
impolitic measure is a question upon which honest and patriotic 
men may differ — do differ. But the act having been passed and 
approved, there can be no doubt that the duty of commanding 
generals was to give it real effect — not allow the government to be 
defrauded by the hasty manufacture of fictitious legal papers. 

General Butler continued his preparations for enforcing the con- 
fiscation act. The day after the expiration of the sixty days' grace, 
the following general order was issued : 

" New Okleans, September 24, 1862. 
" AH persons, male or female, within this department, of the age of 
eighteen years and upward, who have ever been citizens of the United 
States, and have not renewed their allegiance before this date to the United 
States, or who now hold or pretend any allegiance or sympathy with the 
so-called Confederate States, are ordered to report themselves, on or before 
the first day of October next, to the nearest provost-marshal, with a de- 
scriptive list of all their property and rights of property, both real, personal 
and mixed, made out and signed by themselves respectively, with the same 
particularity as for taxation. They shall also report their place of residence 
by number, street, or other proper description, and their occupation, which 
registry shall be signed by themselves, and each shall receive a certificate 
from the marshal of registration as claiming to be an enemy of the United 
States. 

" Any persons, of those described in this order, neglecting so to register 
themselves, shall be subject to fine, or imprisonment at hard labor, or both, 
and all his or hei property confiscated, by order, as punishment for such 
neglect. 

" On the first day of October next, every householder shall return to the 
provost-marshal nearest him, a list of each inmate in his or her house, of 
the age of eighteen years or upward, which list shall contain the following 
particulars : The name, sex, age and occupation of each inmate, whether a 
registered alien, one who has taken the oath of allegiance to the United 
States, a registered enemy of the United States, or one who has neglected 
co register himself or herself, either as an alien, a loyal citizen, or a register- 
ed enemy. All householders neglecting to make such returns, or making a 
false return, shall be punished by fine, or imprisonment with hard labor, or 
both. 



474 



THE CONFISCATION ACT. 



"Each policeman will, within his beat, be held responsible that every 
householder failing to make such return, within three days from the first of 
October, is reported to the provost-marshal ; and five dollars for such 
neglect, for every day in which it is not reported, will be deducted from 
such policeman's pay, and he shall be dismissed. And a like sum for con 
viction of any householder not making his or her return shall be paid to the 
policeman reporting such householder. 

a Every person who shall, in good faith, renew his or her allegiance to 
the United States previous to the first day of October next, and shall re- 
main truly loyal, will be recommended to the president for pardon of his or 
her previous offenses." 

This order led to a run on the oath offices. It was " understood" 
among the secessionists that an oath given to Yankees for the pur- 
pose of retaining property was a mere form of words not binding 
upon the consciences of the chivalric sons of the South. A very 
large number of persons, it is thought, acted upon this opinion ; 
for while the offices appointed for receiving the oaths were throng- 
ed and surrounded by eager multitudes of oath-takers, the number 
of "registered enemies" was less than four thousand. "People," 
said the Delta, "who take the oath of allegiance, and afterward 
say, with a sneer, ' it did not go farther than there' (pointing to 
their throat), should bear in mind that if it is kept in that posi- 
tion, and they conduct themselves accordingly, there is great 
danger of its choking them some fine morning." 

Before General Butler left the department, sixty thousand of its 
inhabitants had taken the oath of allegiance to the 'government of 
the United States. 

The rebel General Jeff. Thompson, who was in command near 
the Union lines, contrived to get in a word on this subject : 

" Ponohatoula, La., September 28th, 
" Sunday, 8 o'clock a. m. 
" Major-General B. F. Butler, U. S. A., New Orleans, La. : 

" [Per Underground Telegraph.] 

" General : — We thank you for General Order No. 76. It will answer us 
for a precedent at New Orleans, St. Louis, Louisville, Baltimore, Washing 
ton, each of which we will have in a few days. We were undetermined 
how to act. Please ' pile it on.' 

"Yours respectfully, Jefferson Thompson, 

" Brigadier- General S. C, commanding Southern Line" 



THE CONFISCATION ACT. 



475 



If the general could regard this epistle as a joke, there were 
other correspondents whose communications caused him real dis- 
tress. The venerable and benevolent Dr. Mercer, for example, a 
gentleman for whom General Butler, in common with the whole 
army, entertained the most sincere respect, addressed him upon the 
subject of General Order JSTo. 76. 

" You have probably inferred, from our various conversations, that 
I have not taken an oath of allegiance to the Confederate States, 
nor have been a member of any society or public body in New 
Orleans, or elsewhere in the confederacy ; and that since your 
arrival here, I have maintained a strict neutrality. In pursuance 
of your Order No. 76, I will make a faithful return, substantially, 
if not minutely accurate, of all my property here, except about 
$3,000, the greater part of which is in gold, that I have reserved 
for an emergency. I mention this to you now to avoid misapprehen- 
sion. Your order referred to exempts only those who have taken 
the oath of allegiance ; but I can not think you intend to include 
those in my situation as claiming to be 'enemies of the United 
States.' Such an interpretation is, in my opinion, at variance with 
the act of congress, as well as with the proclamation of President 
Lincoln." 

General Butler replied : 

" In my judgment, there can be no such thing as neutrality by a 
citizen of the United States in this contest for the life of the gov- 
ernment. As an officer, I can not recognize such neutrality. ' He 
that is not for us is against us.' 

" All good citizens are called upon to lend their influence to the 
United States ; all that do not do so, are the enemies of the United 
States ; the line is to be distinctly and broadly drawn. Every 
citizen must find himself on one side or the other of that line, and 
can claim no other position than that of a friend or an enemy of 
the United States. 

" While I am sorry to be obliged to differ from you in your con 
struction of the act of congress and the proclamation of the presi 
dent, I cannot permit any reservation of property from the list, 
or exemption of persons from the requirement of Order No. 76. 
It may be, and, I trust, is quite true, that by no act of yours have 
you rendered yourself liable to the confiscation of your property 
under the act and proclamation ; but that is for the military or 



476 



THE CONFISCATION ACT. 



other courts (to decide). You, however, will advise yourself, with 
your usual care and caution, what may be the effect, now that you 
are solemnly called upon to declare yourself in favor of the govern- 
ment, of contumaciously refusing to renew your allegiance to it, 
thereby inducing, from your example, others of your fellow-citizens 
to remain in the same opposition. I am glad to acknowledge your 
long and upright life as a man, your former services as an officer 
of the government, and the high respect I entertain for your per- 
sonal character and moral worth ; but I am dealing with your duty 
as a citizen of the United States. All these noble qualities, as well 
as your high social condition, render your example all the more in- 
fluential and pernicious ; and, I grieve to add, in my opinion, more 
dangerous to the interests of the United States than if, a younger 
man, you had shouldered your musket and marched to the field in 
the army of rebellion." 

Dr. Mercer was, therefore, compelled to choose a position on one 
side or the other of the " broad line." He did not take the oath 
of allegiance, but preferred to enroll himself among the registered 
enemies of his country. After the departure of General Butler, he 
escaped to New York, where he has since resided. 

General Butler proceeded in the work recommended by Jeff. 
Thompson, of " piling it on," taking the material from the " pile?" 
of the friends and comrades of that humorous officer. Another of 
his raking general orders appeared in October, which sensibly re 
duced the income of many conspicuous abettors of the rebellion. 

"New Orleans, October 17, 1862. 
u All persons holding powers of attorney or letters of authorization from, 
or who are merely acting for, or tenants of, or intrusted with any moneys, 
goods, wares, property or merchandise, real, personal or mixed, of any per- 
son now in the service of the so-called Confederate States, or any person 
not known by such agent, tenant or trustee to be a loyal citizen of the 
United States, or a bona fide neutral subject of a foreign government, will 
retain in their own hand, until farther orders, all such moneys, goods, 
wares, merchandise and property, and make an accurate return of the same 
to David C. G. Field, Esq., the financial clerk of this department, upon oath, 
on or before the first day of November next. Every such agent, tenant or 
trustee failing to make true return, or shall pay over or deliver any such 
moneys, goods, wares, merchandise and property to, or for the use, directly 
or indirectly, of any person not known by him to be a loyal citizen of the 
United States, without an order from these head-quarters, will be held pei - 




MORE OF THE IROX HAND. 



477 



sonally responsible for the amount so neglected to be returned, paid over or 
delivered. All rents due or to become due by tenants of property belong- 
ing to persons not known to be loyal citizens of the United States, will be 
paid as they become due, to D. 0. G-. Field, Esq., financial clerk of the de- 
partment." 

To complete the reader's knowledge of this subject, it is only 
necessary to add that, early in December, all registered enemies 
who desired to leave New Orleans, not to return, were permitted 
to do so. Several hundreds availed themselves of this permission, 
much to the relief of the party for the Union. 

It was these stern and rigorously executed measures which com- 
pleted the subjugation of the secessionists of New Orleans, and 
deprived them of all power to co-operate with treason beyond the 
Union lines. It was these measures which alone could have pre- 
pared the way for the sincere return of Louisiana to the Union, 
the first requisite to which was the suppression of the small party 
which had traitorously taken the state out of the Union. To com- 
plete the regeneration of the state, it was necessary to foster the 
self-respect, protect the interests, maintain the rights, and raise in 
the scale of civilization that vast majority of the people of Louisi- . 
ana, white and black, bond and free, whose interests and the 
interests of the United States are identical. • This great and diffi- 
cult work General Butler was permitted only to begin. The back- 
woodsman was called from his fields when the forests had been 
cleared, the swamps drained, the noxious creatures driven away, and 
all the rough, wild work done. There would have been a harvest 
in the following year, if the same energetic and fertile mind had 
continued to wield the resources of the land. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

MORE OF THE IROX HAIND. 

Certain- of the Episcopal clergy of New Orleans felt the rigor 
of General Butler's rule. The clergy of New Orleans were seces- 
sionists, of course. Any Christian minister capable of voluntarily 
living in the South during the last twenty years, or any one who 



473 



MORE OF THE IRON HAND. 



was permitted to live there, must have been a person prepared to 
forsake all and follow slavery. This was the condition of their ex- 
ercising the clerical office in the cotton kingdom, and when the 
time came they complied with that condition. 

One " eminent divine" of New Orleans, it is said, was heard to 
remark, that strong as was his belief in special providential dis- 
pensations, that faith would receive a severe, perhaps a fatal shock, 
if the yellow fever did not become epidemic in New Orleans that 
summer. 

When the confiscation act was about to be enforced, General 
Butler had a controversy with Dr. Leacock, the Episcopal clergy- 
man who promised to read the burial service over Lieutenant De 
Kay, and broke his promise. This gentleman was of English birth, 
but had long resided in New Orleans, and, I believe, had become 
a citizen of the United States ; at least, he expressly disclaimed the 
protection of British law. Dr. Leacock, it appears, now desired 
exemption from the decrees which tended to separate the friends 
from the enemies of the Union, and which denied all favor and 
privileges to those who openly adhered to the Confederate cause. 
He claimed to be a Mend of the Union — in fact, a Union man. 
Still, he was not prepared to take the oath of allegiance. Now, 
this man, in November, 1860, had preached a sermon in favor of 
secession, which so exactly chimed in with the feelings of the seces- 
sionists, that four editions of it were printed and sold, to the num- 
ber of 30,000 copies. The sermon was the usual silly tirade 
against " the abolitionists," " the savage fanatics of the North," the 
deadly enemies of a noble southern chivalry. It contained, also, 
the regulation paragraphs upon John Brown and his " band of as- 
sassins," and the "infidel preachers" who had "stimulated" them to 
fall upon a poor, innocent, unsuspecting, persecuted, patient, long- 
suffering southern people. The concluding paragraph of this ser- 
mon was the following : 

"Now, in justice to myself, I must be permitted to make a remark 
before I close. But a few weeks ago I counseled you, from this 
place, to avoid all precipitate action ; but at the same time to take 
determined action — such action only as you thought you could take 
with the conscious support of reason and religion. I give that coun- 
sel still. But I am one of you. I feel as a southerner. Southern 
honor is my honor — southern degradation is my degradation. Let 



MORE OF THE IRON HAND. 



479 



no man mistake my meaning or call my words idle. As a south- 
erner, then, I will speak, and I give it as my firm and unhesitating 
belief, that nothing is now left us but secession. I do not like the 
word, but it is the only one to express my meaning. We do not 
secede — our enemies have seceded. We are on the constitution — 
our enemies are not on the constitution ; and our language should 
be, if you will not go whh us, we will not go with you. You may 
form for yourselves a constitution ; but we will administer among 
ourselves the constitution which our fathers have left us. This 
should be our language and solemn determination. Such action 
our honor demands ; such action will save the Union, if anything 
can. We have yet friends left us in the North, but they can not 
act for us till we have acted for ourselves ; and it would be as pusil- 
lanimous in us to desert our friends as to cower before our enemies. 
To advance, is to secure our rights ; to recede, is to lay our fortunes, 
our honor, our liberty, under the feet of our enemies. I know that 
the consequences of such a course, unless guided by discretion, are 
perilous. But, peril our fortunes, peril our lives, come what will, 
let us never peril our liberty and our honor. I am willing, at 
the call of my honor and my liberty, to die a freeman ; but I'll 
never, no, never, live a slave ; and the alternative now presented 
by our enemies is secession or slavery. Let it be liberty or 
death !" 

General Butler ventured to adduce this sermon as evidence of its 
author's enmity to the Union. Dr. Leacock's reply revealed an 
astounding moral obliquity. 

DE. LEAOOOK TO GENEEAL BTJTLEE. 

"September 26, 1862. 

" Major-General Btjtlee : 

" Sie: — I have not the sermon in manuscript to which, in your note of 
yesterday, you refer. It was taken down during its delivery by a reporter 
unknown to me, but, being called away from the church before it was con- 
cluded, he requested the manuscript, that he might not, as he said, give a 
wrong report of my views. It was given, but never returned. I send, 
however, a printed copy of it with this remark : that the last section, which 
I have circumscribed in pencil, was not delivered from the pulpit, as my 
whole congregation can testify ; and that the publisher was immediately 
required by me, in the presence of several gentlemen, to state this fact, that 
it might be omitted in any future publication. 



480 



MORE OF THE IRON HAND. 



" There is no man that desires more heartily than myself the restoration 
of this Union, as it was before the present controversy arose. In evidence 
of this fact, I send yon another sermon, "vrhich was delivered a few weeks 
after the one in print ; and as yon will find great difficulty in reading it, 
I will transcribe the closing paragraph, to which I desire to refer you, as 
expressive of what I felt then, and of what I feel now. 

" ' The destruction of our Union ! Oh, there is not a spot on the civilized 
globe that would not lament the destruction of our Union. . The wail with 
which the fathers in Egypt pierced the air on the death of their first-born, 
is ready to burst forth from our bosoms if this dire event should happen. 
I speak for myself. There are those among us who may be indifferent to 
it. Bat the nati( as aroand us will consider it a world-wide misfortune. 
The discontented and aspiring, the exile and the adventurer, all seek its 
borders, and are Ft once elevated in the scale of being — enjoying a freer air. 
a fresher nature. It is the land of the aspirations and dreams of the poor 
and oppressed of other countries. Even tyrants who hate it, would not see 
it fall, because t ^iey know not how soon they may have to fly to it for 
refuge. Let the fanatics of the North consider this, and know that they owe 
it to the world, as well as to the ^outh, to heal the wounds they have in- 
flicted, and re^ore harmony and happiness to our country. 

" 'The Unirn, the Union destroyed! Our hearts can scarcely bear the 
thought, much more the weight of sach a visitation. Yet where is the mar 
to arrest its downward progress ? North, south, east, west, where is the 
man ? There is none to answer ; there is none to be found. Then, Lord, 
we come to Thee. Save us, we perish ! Say to the troubled spirits of men, 
be still, that there may be a calm — a calm for deliberate, just, devout con- 
sideration to heal the wounds that have been inflicted, and to restore peace 
and brotherly love to our Union, the Union which has been bequeathed us, 
the Union of equal rights and equal protection. O Lord, save this Union !' 

a These are still my feelings — I have never held any other — I have never 
avowed any other. And I mention this with the alone intention that T 
should not be misunderstood. I desire to be known as I am. My position 
demands that I should speak what I believe to be the truth. I have done 
tfiis, and I leave all consequences with Grod. Please return me the manu- 
script. 

"I am, sir, respectfully, 

" W. T. Leacocx." 

General Butler, not desiring farther correspondence with this 
reverend person, caused Captain Puffer to ask him whether he 
had published any recantation or disavowal of the secession para- 
graph of his sermon, or whether any one else had done so for him. 
Efo replied : " I do not know. I only know that I requested the 



MORE OF THE IKON HAiO). 



481 



reporter, both in person and by letter, to omit the last paragraph, 
because I did not give utterance to it." It thus appeared that this 
Union man had stood by and seen tens of thousands of copies of a 
sermon advising the dismemberment of the Union, and had enjoyed 
the popularity attached to the utterance of such advice, without 
deeming it worth while to inform the public that the passage had 
never been delivered, and did not express his mature opinion. 
Those who can believe in such Unionism may also be able to be- 
lieve that the sermon quoted in the doctor's letter was delivered 
after the published one, which every man in his congregation must 
have read. 

On the day »ipcv vvhich he had replied to Captain Puffer's ques- 
tion, he sought to re-open a correspondence directly with General 
Butler. Something was in the mind of this tender-conscienced 
priest. He now became the accuser of General Butler, and warned 
him of the error of his ways. 

DE. LEACOCK TO GEKEEAL BUTLEB. 

" September 29, 1862. 

•Major -General JButlee, &c, &c, &c. : 

" My deae Sie : — I desire to speak affectionately, but candidly, to yon, 
and I beseech you to hear me patiently. 

"General Butler, 'You are eating up God's people, as it were bread. 1 
You have possessed them with such fear, that they are rushing, innocent 
and weak women, most unwarrantably, guiltless and timid men, most in- 
gloriously, are rushing to their destruction, through fear of being deprived 
of their substance or of their personal liberty. 

" You are playing a dangerous game with public morals — you are com- 
mitting desperate havoc with the consciences of God's people. Thou- 
sands have perjured themselves — thousands are rushing to perjure them- 
selves in the sight of Almighty God, by bringing themselves under oath to 
do what they intend not to do, what they will not do, and what you know 
they neither intend to do nor will do. All this you have seen, and yet you 
have not raised your voice to check the ruinous deception practiced on the 
community by your organ, the Delta. 

"The law under which you act does not call for this universal wicked- 
ness ; but if it did, you should not, as a man professing Christianity, c>*y it, 
because obedience to human law ceases where transgression to the Divine 
law is involved ; and who will not say the Divine law is not transgressed, 
is not openly defied, and that by you, when God is set at naught by num- 
bers only to avoid the terrors of your will. I say your will, not the will 



482 



MOKE OF THE IEOX HA2TO. 



of the law, for the law is more merciful than you ; it exacts of armed 
offenders only what you exact indiscriminately of all. You elevate your 
will above the law for people to bow down and obey ; and in their obedi- 
ence they deny God, and rush into the arms of Satan — and whose is the 
sin? 

"My dear General Butler, I beseech you in God's name to pause and con- 
sider your course. I know you -desire to serve your country; but in your 
efforts to serve your country you must not forget that you are a man, and. 
therefore, should deal mercifully with your fellow-man, as you would have 
God to deal mercifully with you ; we are nowhere commanded to love our 
country, but we are everywhere commanded to love our fellow-men ; and, 
therefore, in dealing with our fellow-men in connection with our country, 
you should not deal with such undue severity, nor place him in a condition 
to risk his salvation for the glorification of saying, or of hearing it said, 
that you have done good to your country — and where is the good? not one 
in ten, that has taken the oath, are you willing to trust. 

" It is with pain and grief that I say all this ; but I must be true to my 
God, and my conscience ; when I see my people rushing thus headlong to 
destruction, I must speak ; though all hell stared me in the face, I must speak — 
silence is my destruction ; for hear the word of the Lord — ' Son of man, I 
have made thee a watchman over the house of Israel; therefore hear the 
word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the 
wicked, Thou shalt surely die, and thou givest him not warning, nor speak - 
est to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life, the same wicked 
man shall die in his iniquity ; but his blood will I require at thine hand.' 

" General Butler — God has given you great talents — few are blessed with 
such — and my prayer to God is, that you may use those talents to his glory ; 
but to do this, you must take a very different course to that which you are 
now pursuing. I pray you, pardon the liberty I have taken ; but I have 
great sympathy for you, and I can not restrain this evidence of my love for 
your soul. 

"May God give you grace to see your error, and to sustain you in the 
proper discharge of your arduous and manifold duties. 

" I am, my dear sir, with great sincerity, your obedient servant, 

" W. T. Leaoock." 

No answer, I believe, was made to this communication. A few 
days after, an event occurred which brought General Butler into 
such direct collision with the Episcopal clergy, that New Orleans 
was not considered by the general large enough to contain both 
parties in the controversy. 

On a Sunday morning, early in October, Major Strong entered 
the office of the general in plain clothes, and said : 



MOKE OF THE IRON HAND. 



483 



"I havn't been able to go to church since we came to New 
Orleans. This morning I am going." 

He crossed the street, and took a front seat in the Episcopal church 
of Dr. Goodrich, opposite the mansion of General Twiggs. He 
joined in the exercises with the earnestness which was natural to 
his devout mind, until the clergyman reached that part of the ser- 
vice where the prayer for the president of the United States occurs. 
That prayer was omitted, and the minister invited the congregation 
to spend a few moments in silent prayer. The young officer had 
not previously heard of this mode of evading, at once, the require- 
ments of the church, and the orders of the commanding general. 
He rose in his place and said : 

" Stop, sir. It is my duty to bring these exercises to a close. I 
3ame here for the purpose, and the sole purpose, of worshiping 
God ; but inasmuch as your minister has seen fit to omit invoking 
a blessing, as our church service requires, upon the president of the 
United States, I propose to close the services. This house will be 
shut within ten minutes." 

The clergyman, astounded, began to remonstrate. 

"This is no time for discussion, sir," said the major. 

The minister was speechless and indignant. The ladies flashed 
wrath upon the officer, who stood motionless with folded arms. 
The men scowled at him. The minister soon pronounced the bene- 
diction, the congregation dispersed, and Major Strong retired to 
report the circumstances at head-quarters. 

This brought the matter to a crisis. General Butler sent for the 
Episcopal clergymen, Dr. Leacock, Dr. Goodrich, Dr. Fulton, and 
others, who were all accustomed to omit the prayer for the presi- 
dent, and pray in silence for the triumph of treason. The general 
patiently and courteously argued the point with them at great 
length, quoting Bible, rubrics and history with his wonted fluency. 
They replied that, in omitting the prayer, they were only obeying 
the orders of the Right Reverend Major-General Polk, their eccle- 
siastical superior. The general denied the authority of that mili- 
tary prelate to change the liturgy, and contended that the omission 
of the prayer, in the peculiar circumstances of the time and place, 
was an overt act of treason. Obedience to the powers that be, he 
said, was the peculiar aim and boast of the Episcopal church ; and 
uo one could doubt that the dominant power in New Orleans was 



484 



MOEE OF THE IKON HAND. 



the president of the United States. And even granting that the 
president was a usurper, that would be only one reason more for 
praying for him. The Union forces had not come to New Orleans 
for a temporary purpose ; they meant to stay. There was no power 
on the continent or off the continent that could expel them. This 
praying for Davis must stop at some time ; why not now ? Be- 
sides, the clergy of the Episcopal church had taken upon themselves 
the most solemn vows to obey the canons and rubrics of the church, 
and their omission of part of the liturgy was of the nature of per- 
jury. 

"But, General," said Dr. Leacock, "your insisting upon the tak- 
ing of the oath of allegiance is causing half of my church-members 
to perjure themselves." 

" Well," replied the general, " if that is the result of your nine 
years' preaching ; if your people will commit perjury so freely, the 
sooner you leave your pulpit the better." 

After further conversation, Dr. Leacock asked : 

" Well, General, are you going to shut up the churches ?" 

" No, sir, I am more likely to shut up the ministers." 

The clergymen showing no disposition to yield, General Butler 
ended the interview by stating his ultimatum : " Read the prayer 
for the president, omit the silent act of devotion, or leave New 
Orleans prisoners of state for Fort Lafayette." 

After consultation with one another and with their people, after 
endless vacillation on the part of Dr. Leacock, three of the clergy- 
men, Dr. Leacock, Dr. Goodrich and Mr. Fulton, decided not to 
read the prayer for the president. Captain Puffer was detailed to 
conduct them to New York, and they sailed in the next transport. 
On the voyage, Captain Puffer informs me, Dr. Goodrich, a benevo- 
lent, venerable man, read prayers to the returning troops, and did 
not omit the prayer for the president. He ministered to the sick 
and dying, and won the sincere regard of all on board. Three 
weeks after their arrival, all the state prisoners were released, and 
they returned to New Orleans. General Banks demanded the oath 
of allegiance as a condition of their landing. They declined the 
condition, and returned to New York. 

General Strong chanced to meet Dr. Goodrich, one day, at the 
St. Nicholas Hotel. They looked at each other for a moment in 
Borne embarrassment, neither knowing what were the feelings of 



MORE OF THE IKON HAND. 



485 



the other. A smile overspread the benevolent countenance of th6 
doctor. General Strong offered his hand, which Dr. Goodrich ac- 
cepted, and the two men laughed heartily at the odd encountei. 

" You did that well," said the clergyman, " since you had made 
up your mind to do it ; but why didn't you come to me privately 
and give me notice ?" 

General Strong explained the circumstances, and they continued 
to converse amicably. 

On the Sunday after the departure of the clergymen from New 
Orleans, their churches were open as usual, but the exercises were 
conducted by chaplains of the Union army, who read the service 
without abridgment. Not many of the auditors were of the seces- 
sionist persuasion. Church going, however, became a more frequent 
practice among officers and men after this purging of the pulpits, 
and, consequently, the places of the absent members were not all 
vacant. 

The pass-office at head-quarters presented the most distressing 
illustrations of the iron-handed rule to which Louisiana was neces- 
sarily subjected. Within the Union lines there was comparative 
plenty ; beyond them there was desolation and want. Food, cloth- 
ing and medicines were to be had in New Orleans by all who could 
pay for them ; and to such as could not they were given. Across 
the lakes, and above the camp of General Phelps, at Carrollton, and 
in the region lying on the western side of the river, food was scarce 
in the extreme, clothing was scarcer, and the stock of medicines had 
long been exhausted. There were parents in the city who had 
starving children or sick children in the enemy's country, only a 
few miles distant. There were people in New Orleans whose aged 
parents, just beyond the lines, were suffering for the necessaries of 
life. There were others whose near relations, people of substance 
and respectability, were going half naked, or were dying for want 
of medicines. On the other hand, there were hundreds of secession- 
ists in the city, whose constant aim, whose sole employment was, 
to devise means of smuggling supplies across the lines to the camps 
of rebel soldiery. 

The pressure, therefore, upon the commandiDg general for passes 
to go beyond the Union lines, was great and continuous. There 
were a hundred applications a day. Women came to head-quarters 
imploring permission to take a little clothing, medicine and food to 



486 MORE OF THE IBON BjLND. 

their perishing children, calling all the saints to witness the truth 
of their story and the honesty of their intentions. A large major- 
ity of the applicants were women, who assailed the tender hearts 
of the general and his staff with tears, entreaties and protesta- 
tions. 

During the first weeks, General Butler himself heard the appli- 
cants, and decided upon their claims. But as this business involved 
a great deal of questioning, cross-questioning and examination of 
papers, he was compelled, at length, to establish a member of his 
staff in an outer office at head-quarters, whose duty it was to sift 
from the mass of suitors the few whose story seemed credible and 
to warrant the indulgence of a pass. These were reported to the 
general, who then decided upon their application. Captain A. F. 
Puffer, of Boston, was the officer selected for this duty. When he 
left the city to conduct the three clergymen northward, his place 
was filled by Lieutenant Frederick Martin, of New York. These 
young officers held a post which severely taxed their patience, 
their firmness and their sagacity. I might add their integrity, 
also, if the integrity of an honorable soldier could ever be severely 
tried. " I was so often offered money for a pass," said Captain 
Puffer, " that, at last, I ceased to be indignant, and would merely 
say to the orderly in attendance, as a matter of business, ' Show 
this woman out.' He was once offered three thousand dollars for 
a pass, the money to be paid before it was procured. 

From the first, nine in ten of the applications were refused. 
Every one at head-quarters was aware that the indulgence was 
almost certain to be abused in some instances, and that the only 
safe course was to make the lines impassable. But many of the 
cases were so movingly piteous, the agony of the applicants seemed 
so real and so great, that it was not in human nature to shut the 
door inexorably upon them. Every possible precaution was taken 
to prevent the conveyance of contraband articles, or articles in con- 
traband quantities. Every box and package was minutely exam- 
ined ; every departing boat was searched. A list Was required of 
everything allowed to be taken, and the applicant pledged his 
honor that he would take nothing else, nor apply the articles to 
any but the specified use. 

It soon appeared, however, that nearly every pass that was 
granted was abused. It soon appeared that a secessionist con- 



MOKE OF THE IEON HAND. 



487 



side-red it no more dishonorable to lie to a Union officer than Jews 
once deemed it a sin to lie to a Christian. Here would come 
a woman, having the appearance and manners of a lady, begging 
with tears and sobs fo'r permission to convey to her starving 
children across the lake just one barrel of flour, that they might 
have at least the means of sustaining life. She would bring friends 
and papers in great numbers to testify to the truth of her story. 
After many days, the pass would be granted ; and the detective 
officer, upon probing the barrel with a probe of extra length, would 
find a pound or two of quinine in the middle. A trunk of clothes 
would be found to have a false bottom stuffed with contraband 
articles. A barrel of potatoes would serve to hide some thousands 
of percussion-caps. Letters, too, giving contraband information, 
were frequently discovered concealed in the boats. 

Every detection, of course, increased the stringency of the pass- 
office. In August, the rebels began to seize boats that ventured 
within their lines, with a view to collect a flotilla for operations 
against the city. Then, at length, was adopted the inflexible 
rule, that no passes should be granted. The adoption of the rule, 
however, did not lessen the number of applicants, nor diminish 
their importunity. " I was plied," says Captain Puffer, " with 
every conceivable story of heart-rending woe and misery, which 
the general, in consequence of the fact that in almost every instance 
where he had yielded to such importunities, his confidence had 
been abused by the carrying of supplies and information to the 
rebel army, had ordered me invariably to refuse. Ordinarily, I 
succeeded in steeling my heart against these urgent entreaties ; 
but occasionally some story, peculiarly harrowing in its details, 
seemed to demand a special effort in behalf of the applicant, and 
I would go to the general, and, in the desperation of my cause, 
exclaim : 

" General, you must see some of these people. I know, if you 
would only hear their stories, you would give them passes." 

" You are entirely correct, captain," he would reply. "I am 
sure I should , and that is precisely why I want you to see them 
for me." 

"And with this very doubtful satisfaction I would return to my 
desk, convinced that sensibility in a man who was allowed no dis- 
cretion in its exercise, was an entirely useless attribute, and that in 



488 



MORE OF THE IRON HAJND. 



future, I would set my face as a flint against every appeal to my 
feelings."* 

Two incidents of the pass-office, related to me by Lieutenant 
Martin, will place this matter distinctly before the reader's mind. 

One Mrs. L. haunted the office for three weeks, pleading with 
tears for her starving children, to whom she wished to convey a 
little food. She had shown some kindness to Union troops on one 
occasion, when they were passing her house, and this was remem- 
bered in her favor. A pass was given her to go to St. Johns and 
return. Something led a detective officer to examine her boat with 
unusual thoroughness. He found that "false hips" had been built 
out upon her sides, which were filled with commodities outrage- 
ously contraband. The woman had deceived every one. Her sim- 
ulation of a mother's agony and tears, sustained, too, for three 
weeks, was so perfect, that no one could doubt the reality of her 
emotions. Yet she was a professional smuggler. 

Some weeks later, a lady applied to Lieutenant Martin for a simi- 
lar permit. Her children, too, were starving, almost within sight 
of their mother ; and, alas ! this was a genuine case. Her children 
were starving. She was a lady in every sense of the word, and 
she convinced the lieutenant of the perfect truth of her story at the 
first interview. But he could only inform her, that no passes were 
then issued, and that any application to the general on her behalf 
would be useless. She came every day for a month, always hoping 
for a relaxation of the rule. At length, the young officer was so 
deeply moved by her distress, that he promised to disobey orders 
so far as to lay her case before the general, and she might come 
the next day to learn the result. She came. Lieutenant Martin had 
the anguish of telling her that her application was necessarily re- 
fused, as her boat was certain to be seized if she crossed the lake. 
She turned pale as death, and fell senseless to the floor. She was 
carried to the nearest physician. In half an hour she revived — a 
raving maniac. She has never known a gleam of reason to this 
day. 

* Atlantic Monthly, July, 1868. 



THE NEGRO QUESTION — EIKST DIFFICULTIES. 469 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE NEGRO QUESTION — FIRST DIFFICULTIES. 

Louisiana has a population of about six hundred thousand. Be- 
fore the war, there was a slight excess of whites over slaves, but 
when the Union troops landed at New Orleans, there was one slave 
in the state to every white person. Many of the parishes contain 
twice as many slaves as whites ; some, three times as many ; a few, 
four times as many; one has nine hundred white inhabitants to 
nearly nine thousand slaves. The marching of a Union column 
into one of those sugar parishes, was like thrusting a walking-stick 
mto an ant-hill — the negroes swarmed about the troops, every sol- 
dier's gun and knapsack carried by a black man, exulting in the 
service. For, in some way, this great multitude of bondmen had 
derived the impression that part of the errand of these troops was 
to set them free. 

The population of New Orleans was about one hundred and 
fifty thousand, of whom eighteen thousand were slaves and ten 
thousand free colored. The class last named is the result of that 
universal licentiousness which exists, necessarily, in every commu- 
nity where the number of slaves is large. In New Orleans, that 
licentiousness was systematized, and partook, in some degree, of 
the character of matrimony. The connections formed with the quad- 
roons and octoroons were often permanent enough for the rearing 
of large families, some of whom obtained their freedom from the 
affection of their father-master, and received the education he would 
have bestowed upon legitimate offspring. The class of free colored, 
therefore, includes a considerable number of wealthy, instructed, 
able, and estimable persons. They have been styled by competent 
observers, the richest class in New Orleans ; many having in- 
herited large estates, and many carrying on lucrative business. 
One of them entertained General Butler at a banquet of seven 
courses, served on silver. 

The secret, darling desire of this class is to rank as human beings 
in their native city ; or, as the giver of the grand banquet expressed 



490 THE NEGRO QUESTION FIRST DIFFICULTIES. 

it, " No matter where I fight ; I only wish to spend what I have, 
and fight as long as I can, if only my boy may stand in the street 
equal to a white boy when the war is over." 

It is difficult for an inhabitant of the North to know how far such 
men as he were from the likelihood of ever enjoying the equality 
he craved. There was at the North a general, mild prejudice 
against color, before the late riots in New York expelled the last 
vestige of it from the heart of every decent human being. But, 
at the South, the prejudice is so complete that the people are not 
aware of its existence ; they fondle and pet their favorite slaves, 
and let their children play with black children as with dogs and 
cats. The slightest taint of black blood in the superbest man, in 
the loveliest woman, one all radiant with golden curls and a blonde 
complexion, perfect in manners and abounding in the best fruits of 
culture, suffices to damn them to an eternal exclusion from the 
companionship of the people with whom they would naturally asso- 
ciate. The most striking illustration of the intensity of this abhor- 
rence of African blood is the well-known fact, that a white wife in 
New Orleans is not generally jealous of her husband's slave mis- 
tress ; and is frequently capable of consoling herself by the reflec- 
tion that the other family, in the next street, are worth a hundred 
dollars each on the day of their birth, and increase in value a hun- 
dred dollars a year during the first fifteen years of their lives. She 
does not recognize in the mother of those children a being that 
could, in any sense of the word, be a rival of a woman in whose 
veins flowed no African blood that was discoverable. The slave 
mistress, also, relieved the sickly white wife of the burden of child- 
bearing. This is southern prejudice against color. The prejudice 
that prevailed at the North, before the recent scenes revealed to 
every one its hellish nature, was base enough, and was strongest in 
the basest ; but it was a trivial matter compared with the uncon- 
scious completeness of aversion that is observable in the true 
southerner — the " original secessionist." 

There were a great many loose negroes about New Orleans when 
the troops landed, slaves of masters in the rebel army left to shift 
for themselves. A still larger number hired their time from their 
masters, and demonstrated that they could take care of themselves, 
besides contributing from sixty cents to a dollar and a half a day tr* 
the maintenance of another family. 



THE NEGRO QUESTION — FIRST DIFFICULTIES. 491 



" These colored girls," said a new-comer one day to a Union 
officer, " whom I see selling bouquets, nuts, oranges, cakes, candies, 
and small wares, on the street corners, must save a great deal of 
money." 

" These people," was the reply, " are merely the agents of their 
white masters and mistresses, who grow their flowers and oranges, 
make the bouquets, pies and candies, and send their slaves to sell 
them in the streets. If she is an apple or a violet short, the balance 
is struck on her back. Many of the people of New Orleans live, 
and have lived for years, in this way." 

It is obvious to the most unreflecting person, that the negro 
question at New Orleans could not be disposed of, as at Fortress 
Monroe, by an epigram. Fortress Monroe was a Union island in a 
secession sea. The number of slaves in the vicinity was not great ; 
only nine hundred in all found their way to Freedom Fort ; and 
every laborer who came in was one laborer lost to the rebel batter- 
ies. The duty of the commanding general was clear the moment 
the " epigram" occurred to his mind. But, in Louisiana, any con- 
siderable disturbance of the relations of labor to capital would have 
been a revolution far more revolutionary than any merely political 
change ever was. Suppose, for example, that all slaves coming into a 
Union camp had been received and maintained, as they were at the 
fortress. General Butler would have had upon his hands, in a 
month, in addition to the thirty thousand destitute whites, not less 
than fifty thousand blacks, for whom he would have had to provide 
food, shelter, clothing and employment ; while the plantations from 
which the city was supplied with daily food would have lain waste. 
The Fortress Monroe experience was, evidently, of no avail in 
dealing with the negro question at New Orleans. 

The instructions given by General McClellan to General 
Butler were silent on this most perplexing subject. General But- 
ler, however, had instructions with regard to it. On leaving 
Washington he was verbally informed by the president, that the 
government was not yet prepared to announce a negro policy. 
They were anxiously considering the subject, and hoped, ere long, 
to arrive at conclusions. Meanwhile, he must " get along" with 
the negro question the best way he could ; endeavor to avoid 
raising insoluble problems and sharply defined issues ; and try to 
manage so that neither abolitionists nor " conservatives" would find 
21* 



492 THE NEGRO QUESTION — FIRST DIFFICULTIES. 

in his acts occasions for clamor. This, however, only for a short 
time. The moment the administration were prepared to announce 
a general policy with regard to the negroes, all generals command- 
ing departments would be notified, and required to pursue the same 
system. 

This sounded reasonably enough at Washington. It wore a very 
different aspect when it had to be applied to the state of things in 
Louisiana. 

The difficulty began on the day after the landing of the troops, 
and became every day more formidable. Some negroes came into 
the St. Charles hotel, penetrated to the quarters of staff-officers, and 
gave information which proved to be reliable. Great numbers soon 
flocked into the Custom-House, pervading the numberless apart- 
ments and passages of that extensive edifice, all testifying the most 
fervent good- will toward the Union troops, all asking to be allowed 
to serve them. Wherever there was a Union post, negroes made 
their appearance — at Fort St. Philip, Fort Jackson, Carrollton, 
Algiers, Baton Rouge, and elsewhere. 

A new article of war forbade the return of these fugitives to 
their masters. What was to be done with them ? Their labor in 
the city was not wanted ; there was a superabundance of white 
laborers. If they were entertained and encouraged, what was to 
prevent an overwhelming irruption of blacks into every post ? The 
whole negro population was in such a ferment, that only a slight 
misstep on the part of the commanding general Would have sufficed 
to reduce society to chaos. 

In these circumstances, the wise, the great, the splendid thing to 
do, was to declare all the slaves in Louisiana free, and put them all 
upon wages, leaving questions of compensation to loyal masters to 
be settled afterward. General Butler was capable of writing a 
general order that would have achieved this sublime revolution 
with speedy advantage to every white and every black in the state. 
It was possible, it was feasible. It was, of all conceivable solutions 
of the problem, the most easy, the most simple, the most expedi- 
tious, the least costly, the least dangerous. But even if the general 
had not been restrained by instructions, this course was excluded 
even from consideration by the arrival of news, on the 9th of May, 
that General Hunter's proclamation of freedom to the slaves of 
South Carolina had been revoked by the president. 



THE NEGRO QUESTION FIRST DIFFICULTIES. 



493 



He was, therefore, shut up to this one course : To preserve, for 
the present, the status in quo, minus as much of the cruelty and 
wrong of it as it might be in the power of the Union officers to 
prevent. To use Mr. Lincoln's expression, he was obliged " to run 
the machine as he found it," with such slight and temporary repairs 
and modifications as could be hastily made. This was the policy 
adopted. It was never announced, but it was the principle acted upon. 

Hence the negroes were not encouraged to come in to the Union 
posts. As many as were required for public and private service 
were employed, each officer being allowed one as a servant. Seve- 
ral were assigned to the hospitals. General Butler himself was 
served by " General Twiggs's William." After some days had 
elapsed, negroes were no longer harbored in the Custom-House, 
and orders were issued that no more should be admitted within 
the Union lines, or into the Union camps. 

But negroes, as we have seen, were placed on an equality with 
white men before the law, and allowed to testify against a white 
man in court. The whipping-houses were quietly abolished, and 
the jailers notified that no more human beings must be brought to 
the jails to be whipped. One of these jailers ventured to advertise, 
a few weeks after the capture of the city, that the "law of Louisi- 
ana for 'the correction of slaves would be enforced as heretofore." 
The attention of the general was called to this announcement, and 
Colonel Stafford was ordered to inquire into it. It was found 
that one slave had been brought in and whipped that morning ; 
but there the fell business stopped. Whatever cruelty was com- 
mitted in New Orleans upon the slaves, was done in secret ; no 
traffic in torture was allowed ; and every slave who asked redress 
for cruelties inflicted, and could give reasonable proof of the truth 
of his story, had redress — had it promptly and fully. Major Bell 
judged such cases as he would have judged similar ones in Boston. 
General Butler never refused a black man admittance to his pres- 
ence by day or by night, and never failed to do him justice when 
justice was possible. The orders were, that whoever else might be 
excluded from head-quarters, no negro should ever be. One con- 
sequence was, that the general had a spy in every house, behind 
every rebel's chair as he sat at table. Another consequence was ? 
that every slave in New Orleans had, at all times, a protector from 
cruelty in the commanding general. 



494 



THE NEGRO QUESTION FIRST DIFFICULTIES. 



The mere diminution of the slaves' awful revenue of torture was 
an unspeakable boon to them. Those hunkers used to hug the 
delusion, in the old party contests, that kindness was the rule and 
cruelty the rare exception, in the treatment of the slaves. As if 
despotism could be sustained by anything but cruelty! They 
found that cruelty was the rule, and that such exceptional kindness 
as is shown to favorite slaves, greatly increases the sum-total of 
their lifetime's misery. Slavery is all cruelty.* It was much to only 
lessen the vast, the incalculable, the inconceivable amount of agony 
inflicted by the lash alone. Probably one whipping of thirty -nine 
lashes with the infernal cowhide inflicts more anguish than a 
respectable Massachusetts hunker has to endure during his whole 
life. What an instantaneous change of sentiment on present politi- 
cal issues would occur, all over the country, if thirty-nine arguments 
of that nature were addressed to the devotees of slavery who, what- 
ever may be the metal of their heads, are not copper-backed. 

Some planters who had not the means of supporting their slaves, 
or of employing them profitably, obliged them to go within the 
Union lines, trusting to reclaim them in better times. This prac- 
tice was stopped by declaring all such slaves emancipated, and giv- 
ing them free papers. Several slaves were also emancipated who 
had been treated with extreme cruelty by their masters. The " star 
car" system was abolished. Colored people were formerly allowed 
to ride only in the street cars that were marked with a black star. 
General Butler required the admission of decent colored people into 
all the public vehicles. Some of the police regulations with regard 
to the slaves were still enforced ; the rule requiring them to be at 
home by nine o'clock in the evening, for example. 

* Dr. Wesley Humphrey writes from Corinth, Mississippi, May 25, 1863 : 

" I have heen selected as the surgeon of the regiment of African descent, now forming here (not 
all black by any means), and during the past week had occasion to examine about seven hundred 
men in a nude state, preparatory to their being mustered into the United States service, and I 
then saw evidences of abuse and maltreatment perfectly horrifying to relate, and must be seen to 
fully understand the abuse to which they have been subjected. I think I am safe in saying that at 
least one-half of that number bore evidence of having been severely whipped and maltreated in 
various ways ; some were staboed with a knife ; others shot through the limbs ; some pounded with 
clubs, until their bones were broken. One man told me he had received for a trifling offense two 
thousand lashes ; and, upon examination, I found seventy -five scars on his back and limbs, that 
rose above the skin the size of your finger, saying nothing of the smaller ones. Others had the 
cords of their legs cut (hamstrings, as they call them), to prevent their running off ; and some 
were shot in resenting such insults. These were witnessed by the colonel, J M. Alexander, lieu 
tenant-colonel, major, &c, of the regiment." 



GENERAL BUTLER AND GENERAL PHELPS. 



495 



Such wore some of the measures by which General Butler strove 
to " get along" with this hideous anomaly, while the president was 
feeling his way to a general policy, and waiting for the ripening of 
public opinion. General Butler, like the president himself, stood 
between two fires. One set of Unionists in New Orleans kept say- 
ing to him, as I read in their letters, now before me : 

Return all fugitives to their masters ; show, by word and deed , 
that your sole object is the restoration of the old state of things ; 
and Louisiana will return to the Union " in a month." 

Another party said : " No ; the original secessionists are incu- 
rable ; destroy their power by abolishing slavery ; crush that in- 
solent faction utterly ; and Louisiana will hoist the old flag with 
enthusiasm." 

He could do neither of these things. An article of war forbade 
the first ; the revocation of General Hunter's proclamation forbade 
the second. His struggle, meanwhile, to " get along" with a difficul- 
ty that would not wait for the tardy action of the government, 
brought him into painful and lamentable collision with General 
Phelps, which resulted in the country's losing the services of that 
noble soldier. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

GENERAL BUTLER AND GENERAL PHELPS. 

General Phelps was in command at Carrollton, seven miles 
above the city, the post of honor in the defensive cordon around 
New Orleans. " I found myself," he remarks, " in the midst of a 
slave region, where the institution existed in all its pride and 
gloom, and where its victims needed no inducement from me to 
seek the protection of our flag — that flag, which now, after a long 
interval, gleamed once more amid the darkling scene, like the ef- 
fusion of morning light. Fugitives began to throng to our lines in 
large numbers. Some came loaded with chains and barbarous 
irons ; some bleeding with bird-shot wounds ; many had been 
deeply scored with lashes, and all complained of the extinction of 



496 



GENERAL BT7TLEE AND GENEEAL PHELPS. 



their moral rights. They had originally come chiefly from Mary- 
land, Virginia, and North Carolina, and were generally religious 
persons, who had been accustomed to better treatment than that 
which they experienced there." 

General Butler was aware of this influx of fugitives ; but, in 
obedience to the temporary policy enjoined upon him by the gov- 
ernment, he took no notice of the fact. The vehement desire of 
General Phelps was, not merely to welcome and harbor the fugi- 
tives, but form them into military companies and drill them into ser- 
viceable soldiers. He was grieved, therefore, when, on the 12th of 
May, General Butler requested him to place his able-bodied negroes 
under the direction of two planters of the vicinity, that they might 
be employed in closing a break in the levee above Carrollton, which 
threatened a disastrous inundation. " You will see," wrote Gen- 
eral Butler, " the need of giving them every aid in your power to 
save and protect the levee, even to returning their own negroes 
and adding others, if need be, to their force. This is outside of the 
question of returning negroes. You should send your own sol- 
diers, let alone allowing the men who are protecting us all from 
the Mississippi to have the workmen who are accustomed to this 
service." 

General Phelps did not " see" the need of sending back his fugi- 
tives. A positive order settled the question on the 23d of May : 
" In view of the disaster which might occur to us, in case a crevasse 
should occur above our lines, I have concluded to send a force of 
one hundred laborers, in charge of a guard, to attend to raising and 
guarding the levee above your lines. You will also place every able- 
bodied contraband within your camp in charge of Captain Page, 
the officer of this guard, to assist in this work." This was better, 
thought General Phelps, than consigning the negroes to the custody 
and direction of their former masters. The order was obeyed, of 
course. 

Meanwhile, General Butler was besieged with complaints of the 
harboring of fugitives in General Phelps's camp. All the complain- 
ants professed to be Union men ; some of them were such ; and most 
of them were the producers of vegetables for the New Orleans mar- 
ket. Besides, the harboiing of the negroes involved the necessity 
of their maintenance, and invited the entire negro population to fly 
to the refuge of Union posts. It seemed to General Butler nece» 



GENERAL BUTLER AND GENERAL PHELPS. 



491 



sary to check the irruption before it became unmanageable. The 
following order was therefore issued : 

• 

" New Oeleans, May 23, 1862. 

" Geneeax : — You will cause all unemployed persons, black and white, 
to be excluded from your lines. 

" You will not permit either black or white persons to pass your lines, 
not officers and soldiers or belonging to the navy of the United States, with- 
out a pass from these head-quarters, except they are brought in under 
guard as captured persons, with information, and those to be examined 
and detained as prisoners of war, if they have been in arms against the 
United States, or dismissed and sent away at once, as the case may be. 
This does not apply to boats passing up the river without landing within 
the lines. 

" Provision dealers and marketmen are to be allowed to pass in with 
provisions and their wares, but not to remain over night. 

"Persons having had their permanent residence within your lines 
before the occupation of our troops, are not to be considered unemployed 
persons. 

" Your officers have reported a large number of servants. Every officer 
so reported employing servants will have the allowance for servants de- 
ducted from his pay-roll. 

" Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

U B. F. Butlee. 

"Brig.-Gen. Phelps, Commanding Camp Parapet.'''' 

General Phelps was struck with horror at this command. The 
fugitives, however, were removed to a point just above the lines, 
where they found partial shelter, and lived on the bounty of the 
soldiers, who generously shared with them their rations. An event 
occurred on the 12th of June, which brought on the crisis. On 
the morning of that day the negroes numbered seventy-five ; but, 
within the next twenty-four hours, the number was doubled. 

" The first installment," reported Major Peck, the officer of the 
day, " were sent by a man named La Blanche, from the other side 
of the river, on the night of the 13th, he giving them their choice, 
according to their statement, of leaving before sundown, or receiv- 
ing fifty lashes each. Many of them desire to return to their mas- 
ter, but are prevented by fear of harsh treatment. They are of all 
ages and physical conditions — a number of infants in arms, many 
young children, robust men and women, and a large number of 
lame, old, and infirm of both sexes. The rest of them came in 



498 



GENERAL BUTLEB AND GENEEAL PHELPS. 



singly and in small parties from various points up the river within 
a hundred miles. They brought with them boxes, bedding and 
luggage of all sorts, which lie strewn upon the levee and the open 
spaces around the picket. The women and children, and some 
feeble ones who needed shelter, were permitted to occupy a de- 
erted house just outside the lines. They are quite destitute of 
provisions, many having eaten nothing for days, except what our 
soldiers have given them from their own rations. In accordance 
with orders already issued, the guard was instructed to permit 
none of them to enter the lines. As each ' officer of the day' will 
be called upon successively to deal with the matter, I take the lib- 
erty to suggest whether some farther regulation in reference to 
these unfortunate persons is not necessary to enable him to do his 
duty intelligently, as well as for the very apparent additional rea- 
sons, that the congregation of such large numbers in our immediate 
vicinity affords inviting opportunity for mischief to ourselves, and 
also, that unless supplied with the means of sustaining life by the 
benevolence of the military authorities, or of the citizens (which is 
scarcely supposable), they must shortly be reduced to suffering and 
starvation, in the very sight of tjie overflowing store-houses of the 
government." 

General Phelps could endure this state of things no longer. He 
now wrote a paper on the subject for the president's own eye, 
which is one of the most pathetic, eloquent, and convincing pieces 
of composition which the war has produced ; a paper which anti- 
cipated, by many months, both the policy of the government, and 
the march of public opinion. Public opinion has now come up to 
it. The policy of the government is now the policy recommended 
by it. It will now be read with profound approval and hearty ad- 
miration, mad as it seemed to many only sixteen months ago : 

" Camp Paeapet, neae Caeeollton, La., June 16, 1862. 
" Oapt. R. S. Davis, Acting Assistant Adjutant- General, New Orleans, La. : 
" Ste : — I inclose herewith, for the information of the major-general 
commanding the department, a report of Major Peck, officer of the day, 
concerning a large number of negroes, of both sexes and all ages, who are 
lying near our pickets, with bag and baggage, as if they had already com- 
menced an exodus. Many of these negroes have been sent away from one 
of the neighboring sugar plantations by their owner, a Mr. Babilliard La 



GENERAL BUTLER AND GENEKAL PHELPS. 



499 



Blanche, who tells them, I am informed, that ' the Yankees are king here 
now, and that they must go to their king for food and shelter.' 

" They are of that four millions of our colored subjects who have no 
king or chief, nor in fact any government that can secure to them the simplest 
natural rights. They can not even be entered into treaty stipulations with 
and deported to the east, as our Indian tribes have been to the west. They 
have no right to the mediation of a justice of the peace or jury between 
them and chains and lashes. They have no right to wages for their labor ; 
no right to the Sabbath ; no right to the institution of marriage ; no right 
to letters or to self-defense. A small class of owners, rendered unfeeling, 
and even unconscious and unreflecting by habit, and a large part of them 
ignorant and vicious, stand between them and their government, destroy- 
ing its sovereignty. This government has not the power even to regulate 
the number of lashes that its subjects may receive. It can not say that 
they shall receive thirty-nine instead of forty. To a large and growing 
class of its subjects it can secure neither justice, moderation, nor the advan- 
tages of Christian religion ; and if it can not protect all its subjects, it can 
protect none, either black or white. 

"It is nearly a hundred years since our people first declared to the nations 
of the world that all men are born free; and still we have not made our 
declaration good. Highly revolutionary measures have since then been 
adopted by the admission of Missouri and the annexation of Texas in favor of 
slavery by the barest majorities of votes, while the highly conservative vote 
of two-thirds has at length been attained against slavery, and still slavery 
exists — even, moreover, although two-thirds of the blood in the veins of 
our slaves is fast becoming from our own race. If we wait for a larger vote, 
or until our slaves' blood becomes more consanguined still with our own, the 
danger of a violent revolution, over which we can have no control, must be- 
come more imminent every day. By a course of undecided action, deter- 
mined by no policy but the vague will of a war-distracted people, we run 
the risk of precipitating that very revolutionary violence which we seem 
seeking to avoid. 

" Let us regard for a moment the elements of such a revolution. 

"Many of the slaves here have been sold away from the border states as 
a punishment, being too refractory to be dealt with there in the face of the 
civilization of the North. They come here with the knowledge of the 
Christian religion, with its germs planted and expanding, as it were, in the 
dark, rich, soil of their African nature, with a feeling of relationship with 
the families from which they came, and with a sense of unmerited banish- 
ment as culprits, all which tends to bring upon them a greater severity of 
treatment and a corresponding disinclination ' to receive punishment.' 
They are far superior beings to their ancestors, who were brought from 
Africa two generations ago, and who occasionally rebelled against compara- 



500 



GENERAL BUTLER AND GENERAL PHELPS. 



tively less severe punishment than is inflicted now. While rising in the 
scale of Christian beings, their treatment is being rendered more severe than 
ever. The whip, the chains, the stocks, and imprisonment are no mere fancies 
here ; they are used to any extent to which the imagination of civilized 
man may reach. Many of them are as intelligent as their masters, and far 
more moral, for while the slave appeals to the moral law as his vindication, 
clinging to it as to the very horns of the altar of his safety and his hope, 
the master seldom hesitates to wrest him from it with violence and con- 
tempt. The slave, it is true, bears no resentment ; he asks for no punish- 
ment for his master ; he simply claims justice for himself ; and it is this 
feature of his condition that promises more terror to the retribution when 
it comes. Even now the whites stand accursed by their oppression of 
humanity, being subject to a degree of confusion, chaos, and enslave- 
ment to error and wrong, which northern society could not credit or 
comprehend. 

"Added to the four millions of the colored race whose disaffection is in- 
creasing even more rapidly than their number, there are at least, four millions 
more of the white race whose growing miseries will naturally seek compan- 
ionship with those of the blacks. This latter portion of southern society has 
its representatives, who swing from the scaffold with the same desperate 
coolness, though from a directly different cause, as that which was mani- 
fested by John Brown. The traitor Mumford, who swung the other day 
for trampling on the national flag, had been rendered placid and indifferent 
in his desperation by a government that either could not or would not 
secure to its subjects the blessings of liberty which that flag imports. The 
South cries for justice from the government as well as the North, though 
in a proud and resentful spirit ; and in what manner is that justice to be 
obtained ? Is it to be secured by that wretched resource of a set of profli- 
gate politicians, called ' reconstruction V No, it is to be obtained by the 
abolition of slavery, and by no other course. 

" It is vain to deny that the slave system of labor is giving shape to the 
government of the society where it exists, and that that government is not 
republican, either in form or spirit. It was through this system that the 
leading conspirators have sought to fasten upon the people an aristocracy 
or a despotism ; and it is not sufficient that they should be merely defeated 
in their object, and the country be rid of their rebellion ; for by our consti- 
tution we are imperatively obliged to sustain the state against the ambi- 
tion of unprincipled leaders, and secure to them the republican form of 
government. We have positive duties to perform, and should hence adopt 
and pursue a positive, decided policy. We have services to render to cer- 
tain states which they can not perform for themselves. We are in an emer- 
gency which the framers of the constitution might easily have foreseen, 
and for which they have amply provided. 



GENERAL BUTLER AND GENERAL PHELPS. 



501 



" It is clear that the public good requires slavery to be abolished ; but in 
what manner is it to be done ? The mere quiet operation of congressional 
law can not deal with slavery as in its former status before the war, because 
the spirit of law is right reason, and there is no reason in slavery. A sys- 
tem so unreasonable as slavery can not be regulated by reason. We cm 
hardly expect the several states to adopt laws or, measures against their 
own immediate interests. We have seen that they will rather find argu- 
ments for crime than seek measures for abolishing or modifying slavery. 
But there is one principle which is fully recognized as a necessity in condi- 
tions like ours, and that is that the public safety is the supreme law of the 
state, and that amid the clash of arms the laws of peace are silent. It is 
then for our president, the commander-in-chief of our armies, to declare 
the abolition of slavery, leaving it to the wisdom of congress to adopt meas- 
ures to meet the consequences. This is the usual course pursued by a 
general or by a military power. That power gives orders affecting compli- 
cated interests and millions of property, leaving it to the other functions of 
government to adjust and regulate the effects produced. Let the president 
abolish slavery, and it would be an easy matter for congress, through a 
well regulated system of apprenticeship, to adopt safe measures for effect- 
ing a gradual transition from slavery to freedom. 

£ The existing system of labor in Louisiana is unsuited to the age ; and 
by the intrusion of the national forces it seems falling to pieces. It is a 
system of mutual jealousy and suspicion between the master and the man— 
a system of violence, immorality and vice. The fugitive negro tells us that 
our presence renders his condition worse with his master than it was be- 
fore, and that we offer no alleviation in return. The system is impolitic, 
because it offers but one stimulant to labor and effort, viz. : the lash, when 
another, viz. : money, might be added with good effect. Fear, and the other 
low and bad qualities of the slave, are appealed to, but never the good. 
The relation, therefore, between capital and labor, which ought to be gen- 
erous and confiding, is darkling, suspicious, unkindly, full of reproachful 
threats, and without concord or peace. This condition of things renders 
the interests of society a prey to politicians. Politics cease to be practical 
or useful. 

"The questions that ought to have been discussed in the late extraordi- 
nary convention of Louisiana, are : First, What ought the state of Louisi- 
ana to do to adapt her ancient system of labor to the present advanced 
spirit of the age ? And Second, How can the state be assisted by the gen- 
eral government in effecting the change? But instead of this, the only 
question before that body was how to vindicate slavery by flogging the 
Yankees ! 

" Compromises hereafter are not to be made with politicians, but with 
sturdy labor and the right to work. The interests of workingmen resent 



502 



GENERAL BUTLER AND GENERAL PHELPS. 



political trifling. Our political education, shaped almost entirely to the in- 
terest of slavery, has been false and vicious in the extreme, and it must be 
corrected with as much suddenness, almost, as that with which Salem 
witchcraft came to its end. The only question that remains to decide is 
how the change shall take place. 

u We are not without; examples and precedents in the history of the past. 
The enfranchisement of the people of Europe has been, and is still going 
on, through the instrumentality of military service ; and by this means our 
slaves might be raised in the scale of civilization and prepared for freedom. 
Fifty regiments might be raised among them at once, which could be em- 
ployed in this climate to preserve order, and thus prevent the necessity of 
retrenching our liberties, as we should do by a large army exclusively of 
whites. For it is evident that a considerable army of whites would give 
stringency to our government, while an army, partly of blacks, would natu- 
rally operate in favor of freedom and 'against those influences which at 
present most endanger our liberties. At the end of five years they could 
be sent to Africa, and their places filled with new enlistments. 

" There is no practical evidence against the effects of immediate abolition, 
even if there is not in its favor. I have witnessed the sudden abolition of 
flogging at will in the army, and of legalized flogging in the navy, against 
the prejudice-warped judgments of both, and, from the beneficial effects 
there, I have nothing to fear from the immediate abolition of slavery. I 
fear, rather, the violent consequences from a continuance of the evil. But 
should such an act devastate the whole state of Louisiana, and rendei the 
whole soil here but the mere passage-way of the fruits of the enterprise and 
industry of the Northwest, it would be better for the country at large than 
it is now as the seat of disaffection and rebellion. 

" When it is remembered that not a word is found in our constitution 
sanctioning the buying and selling of human beings, a shameless act which 
renders our country the disgrace of Christendom, and worse, in this respect, 
even than Africa herself, we should have less dread of seeing the degrading 
traffic stopped at once and for ever. Half wages are already virtually 
paid for slave labor in the system of tasks which, in an unwilling spirit of 
compromise, most of the slave states have already been compelled to adopt- 
At the end of five years of apprenticeship, or of fifteen at farthest, full 
wages could be paid to the enfranchised negro race, to the double advan- 
tage of both master and man. This is just ; for we now hold the slaves of 
Louisiana by the same tenure that the state can alone claim them, viz. : by 
the original right of conquest. We have so far conquered them that a proc- 
lamation setting them free, coupled with offers of protection, would devas- 
tate every plantation in the state. 

" In conclusion, I may state that Mr. La Blanche is, as I am informed, a 
descendant from one of the oldest families of Louisiana. He is wealthy and 




GiCNEKAi. KTTTLER AND GENERAL PHELPS. 503 

a man of standing, and his act in sending away his negroes to our lines, 
"with their clothes and furniture, appears to indicate the convictions of his 
own mind as to the proper logical consequences and deductions that should 
follow from the present relative status of the two contending parties. He 
seems to be convinced that the proper result of the conflict is the manumis- 
sion of the slave, and he may be safely regarded in this respect as a repre- 
sentative man of the state. I so regard him myself, and thus do I interpret 
bis action, although my camp now contains some of the highest symbols of 
secessionisin, which have been taken by a party of the Seventh Vermont 
volunteers from his residence. 

''Meantime his slaves, old and young, little ones and all, are suffering 
from exposure and uncertainty as to their future condition. Driven away 
by their master, with threats of violence if they return, and with no deci- 
ded welcome or reception from us, what is to be their lot ? Considerations 
of humanity are pressing for an immediate solution of their difficulties ; and 
they are but a small portion of their race who have sought, and are still 
seeking, our pickets and our military stations, declaring that they can not 
and will not any longer serve their masters, and that all they want is work 
and protection from us. In such a state of things, the question occurs as 
to my own action in the case. I can not return them to their masters, who 
not unfrequently come in search of them, for I am, fortunately, prohibited 
by an article of war from doing that, even if my own nature did not revolt 
at it. I can not receive them, for I have neither work, shelter, nor the 
means or plan of transporting them to Hayti, or of making suitable arrange- 
ments with their masters until they can be provided for. 

" It is evident that some plan, some policy, or some system is necessary 
on the part of the government, without which the agent can do nothing, 
and all his efforts are rendered useless and of no effect. This is no new 
condition in which I find myself ; it is my experience during the some 
twenty-five years of my public life as a military officer of the government. 
The new article of war recently adopted by congress, rendering it criminal 
in an officer of the army to return fugitives from injustice, is the first sup- 
port that I have ever felt from the government in contending against those 
slave influences which are opposed to its character and to its interests. 
But the mere refusal to return fugitives does not now meet the case. A 
public agent in the present emergency must be invested with wider and 
more positive powers than this, or his services will prove as valueless to the 
country as they are unsatisfactory to himself. 

" Desiring this communication to be laid before the president, and leav- 
ing my commission at his disposal, 

" I have the honor to remain, sir, 

" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"J. "W. Fhelps, Brigadier- General" 



504 



GENEBAL BUTLER AXD GENEKAL PHELPS. 



General Butler received this communication just as a mail steamer 
was about to sail for New York. He detained the steamer while 
he wrote the following just and considerate dispatch, a copy of 
which was courteously sent to General Phelps : 

♦ "New Oeleans, La., June 18, 1862. 

"Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War : 

" Sir: — Since my last dispatch was written, I have received the accom- 
panying report from General Phelps. 

"It is not my duty to enter into a discussion of the questions which it 
presents. 

" 1 desire, however, to state the information of Mr. La Blanche, given 
me by his friends and neighbors, and also gathered from Jack La Blancne, 
bis slave, who seems to be the leader of this party of negroes. Mr. La 
Blanche I have not seen. He, however, claims to be loyal, and to have 
taken no part in the war, but to have lived quietly on his plantation, some 
twelve miles above New Orleans, on the opposite side of the river. He has 
a son in the secession army, whose uniform and equipments, &c, are the 
symbols of secession of which General Phelps speaks. Mr. La Blanche's 
house was searched by the order of General Phelps, for arms and contraband 
of war, and his neighbors say that his negroes were told that they were 
free if they would come to the general's camp. 

" That thereupon the Degroes, under the lead of Jack, determined to leave, 
and for that purpose crowded into a small boat which, from overloading, 
was in danger of swamping. 

" La Blanche then told his negroes that if they were determined to go, 
they would be drowned, and he would hire them a large boat to put them 
across the river, and that they might have their furniture if they would go 
and leave his plantation and crop to ruin. 

" They decided to go, and La Blanche did all a man could to make that 
going safe. 

"The account of General Phelps is the negro side of the story; that 
above given is the story of Mr. La Blanche's neighbors, some of whom ] 
know to be loyal men! 

" An order against negroes being allowed in camp is the reason they are 
outside. 

" Mr. La Blanche is represented to be a humane man, and did not con- 
sent to the ' exodus' of his negroes. 

" General Phelps, I believe, intends making this a test case for the polic y 
of the government. I wish it might be so, for the difference of our action 
upon this subject is a source of trouble. I respect his honest sincerity of 
opinion, but I am a soldier, bound to carry out the wishes of my govern- 
ment so long as I hold its commission, and I understand that policy to be 



GENERAL BUTLER AND GENERAL PHELPS. 



505 



the one I am pursuing. I do not feel at liberty to pursue any other. If 
the policy of the government is nearly that I sketched in my report upon 
this subject and that which I have ordered in this department, then the ser- 
vices of General Phelps are worse than useless here. If the views set forth 
in his report are to obtain, then he is invaluable, for his whole soul is in it, 
and he is a good soldier of large experience, and no braver man lives. I 
beg to leave the whole question with the president, with perhaps the need- 
less assurance that his wishes shall be loyally followed, were they not in 
accordance with my own, as I have now no right to have any upon the sub- 
ject. 

"I write in haste, as the steamer Mississippi is awaiting this dispatch. 
" Awaiting the earliest possible instructions, I, have the honor to be, 
" Your most obedient servant, 

"B. F. Butler, Major- General Commanding" 

A month or more passed. The negroes remained in the vicinity 
of Camp Parapet. "I awaited an answer from Washington," says 
General Phelps, " for about six weeks, when, as a great many ne- 
groes had in the mean time thronged to my camp, and no answer 
came, I was left to the inference that silence gives consent, and pro- 
ceeded therefore to take such decided measures as appeared best 
calculated, to me, to dispose of the difficulty." 

In other words, General Phelps determined to act as if the gov- 
ernment had given just the answer which he desired. He accord 
ingly sent to head-quarters the following requisition : 

" Camp Parapet, La., July 30, 1862 
" Captain R. S. Davis, A. A. A. General, New Orleans, La. : 

" Sir : — I inclose herewith requisitions for arms, accouterments, clothing, 
camp and garrison equipage, &c, for three regiments of Africans, which 1 
propose to raise for the defense of this point. The location is swampy and 
unhealthy, and our men are dying at the rate of two or three a day. 

" The southern loyalists are willing, as I understand, to furnish their 
hare of the tax for the support of the war ; but they should also furnish 
their quota of men, which they have not thus far done. An opportunity 
now offers of supplying the deficiency ; and it is not safe to neglect oppor- 
tunities in war. I think that, with the proper facilities, I could raise the 
three regiments proposed in a short time. Without holding out any in- 
ducements, or offering any reward, I have now upward of three hundred 
Africans organized into five companies, who are all willing and ready to 
show their devotion to our cause in any way that it may be put to the test. 
They are willing to submit to anything rather than to slavery. 



506 



GENERAL BUTLER AND GENERAL PHELPS. 



" Society in the South seems to be on the point of dissolution ; and the 
best way of preventing the. African from becoming instrumental in a gen- 
eral state of anarchy, is to enlist him in the cause of the Republic. If we 
reject his services, any petty military chieftain, by offering him freedom, 
can have them for the purpose of robbery and plunder. It is for the inter- 
ests of the South, as well as of the North, that the African should be per- 
mitted to offer his block for the temple of freedom. Sentiments unworthy 
of the man of the present day — worthy only of another Cain — could alone 
prevent such an offer from being accepted. 

" I would recommend that the cadet graduates of the present year should 
be sent to South Carolina and this point to organize and discipline our Af- 
ricaD levies, and that the. more promising non-commissioned officers and 
privates of the army be appointed as company officers to command them. 
Prompt and energetic efforts in this direction would probably accomplish 
more toward a speedy termination of the war, and an early restoration of 
peace and unity, than any other course which could be adopted. 

" I have the honor to remain, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"J. W. Phelps, Brigadier- General." 

About this time, arrived at New Orleans the intelligence that 
congress had passed an act authorizing officers commanding de- 
partments and posts, to employ as many negro laborers as the pub- 
lic service required. General Butler hailed the act with delight, 
since it afforded a promise of an arrangement with General Phelps. 
He caused the following answer to be given to the requisition : 

"New Orleans, July 31, 1862. 
" General : — The general commanding wishes you to employ the con- 
trabands in and about your camp in cutting down all the trees. &c, be- 
tween your lines and the lake, and in forming abatis, according to the plan 
agreed upon between you and Lieutenant Weitzel when he visited you some 
time since. What wood is not needed by you is much needed in this city. 
For this purpose I have ordered the quartermaster to furnish you with axes, 
and tents for the contrabands to be quartered in. 

" I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

" By order of Major-General Butlee. 
"Pt. S. Davis, Copt, and A. A. A. G. 
" To Brigadier- General J. W. Phelps, Camp Parapet.'' 

It was of no avail. In his reply to this communication, General 
Phelps, I can not but think, put himself signally in the wrong. 



GENERAL BUTLER AND GENERAL PHELPS. 50? 

"Camp Paeapet, La., July 31, 1862. 
" Captain R. S. Davis, A. A. A. General, New Orleans, La. : 

"Sir: — The communication from your office of this date, signed, 'By 
order of Major-General Butler,' directing me to employ the ' contrabands' 
in and about my camp in cutting down all the trees between my lines and 
the lake, etc., has just been received. 

"In reply, I must state that while I am willing to prepare African regi- 
ments for the defense of the government against its assailants, I am not 
willing to become the mere slave-driver which you propose, having no 
qualifications in that way. I am, therefore, under the necessity of tender- 
ing the resignation of my commission as an officer of the army of the Uni- 
ted States, and respectfully request a leave of absence until it is accepted, 
in accordance with paragraph 29, page 12, of the general regulations. 

" While I am writing, at half-past eight o'clock p. m., a colored man is 
brought in by one of the pickets who has just been wounded in the side by 
a charge of shot, which he says was fired at him by one of a party of three 
slave-hunters or guerillas, a mile or more from our line of sentinels. As 
it is some distance from the camp to the lake, the party of wood-choppers 
which you have directed will probably need a considerable force to guard 
them against similar attacks. 

" I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"J. "W. Phelps, Brigadier- General." 

General Butler thus replied : 

" ISTew Orleans, August 2, 1862. 

" General : — I was somewhat surprised to receive your resignation for 
the reasons stated. 

" When you were put in command at Camp Parapet, I sent Lieutenant 
Weitzel, my chief engineer, to make a reconnoissance of the lines of Car- 
rollton, and I understand it was agreed between you and the engineer that 
a removal of the wood between Lake Pontch'artrain and the right of your 
intrenchment was a necessary military precaution. The work could not be 
done at that time because of the stage of water and the want of men. But 
now both water and men concur. You have five hundred Africans organ- 
ized into companies, you write me. This work they are fitted to do. It 
must either be done by them or my soldiers, now drilled and disciplined. 
You have said the location is unhealthy for the soldier, it is not to the ne- 
gro ; is it not best that these unemployed Africans should do this labor ? 
My attention is specially called to this matter at the present time, because 
there are reports of demonstrations to be made on your lines by the rebels, 
and in my judgment it is a matter of necessary precaution thus to clear the 
right of your line, so that you can receive the proper aid from the gun-boat& 
22 



508 



GENERAL BUTLER AND GENERAL PHELPS. 



on the lake, besides preventing the enemy from having cover. To do this 
the negroes ought to be employed ; and in so employing them I see no evi- 
dence of ' slave -driving' or employing you as a ' slave-driver.' 

" The soldiers of the Army of the Potomac did this very thing last sum- 
mer in front of Arlington Hights : are the negroes any better than they ? 

" Because of an order to do this necessary thing to protect your front, 
threatened by the enemy, you tender your resignation and ask immediate 
leave of absence. I assure you I did not expect this, either from your cour- 
age, your patriotism, or your good sense. To resign in the face of an en- 
emy has not been the highest plaudit to a soldier, especially when the rea- 
son assigned is that he is ordered to do that which a recent act of congress 
has specially authorized a military commander to do, i. e., employ the Afri- 
cans to do the necessary work about a camp or upon a fortification. 

" General, your resignation will not be accepted by me, leave of absence 
will not be granted, and you will see to it that my orders, thus necessary 
for the defense of the city, are faithfully and diligently executed, upon the 
responsibility that a soldier in the field owes to his superior. I will see that 
all proper requisitions for the food, shelter, and clothing of these negroes 
so at work are at once filled by the proper departments. You will also 
send out a proper guard to protect the laborers against the guerilla force, 
if any, that may be in the neighborhood. 

" I am your obedient servant, 
"Benj. F. Butler, Major- General Commanding. 

" Brigadier- General J. W. Phelps, commanding at Camp Parapet." 

On the same day, General Butler wrote again to General 
Phelps : 

"New Orleans, August 2, 1862. 

"General: — By the act of congress, as I understand it, the president 
of the United States alone has the authority to employ Africans in arms as 
a part of the military forces of the United States. 

" Every law up to this time raising volunteer or militia forces has been 
opposed to their employment. The president has not as yet indicated his 
purpose to employ the Africans in arms. 

" The arms, clothing, and camp equipage which I have here for the Lou- 
isiana volunteers, is, by the letter of the secretary of war, expressly limited 
to white soldiers, so that I have no authority to divert them, however much 
[ may desire so to do. 

" I do not think you are empowered to organize into companies negroes, 
and drill them as a military organization, as I am not surprised, but unex- 
pectedly informed you have done. I can not sanction this course of action 
a* at present advised, specially when we have need of the services of the 



GENERAL BUTLER AND GENERAL PHELPS. 



509 



blacks, who are being sheltered upon the outskirts of your camp, as you will 
see by the orders for their employment sent you by the assistant adjutant- 
general. 

"I will send your application to the president, but in the mean time you 
must desist from the formation of any negro military organization. 

" I am your obedient servant, 
"Benj. F. Butlee, Major- General Commanding. 
" Brigadier-General Phelps, commanding forces at Camp Parapet." 

With these official letters General Butler sent a private one, in 
which he gave utterance to his sincere appreciation of Genera^ 
Phelps's abilities, patriotism and humanity, and implored him not to 
persist in a course which must place him in an attitude of hostility 
to the commander of the department. " A more delicate, generous, 
or considerate letter I never read," says Captain Puffer, who 
wrote it from the general's dictation. 

General Phelps was immovable. He at once replied to the two 
official letters : 

" Camp Paeapet, La., August 2, 1862. 
" Major-General B. F. Butlee, commanding the Department of the Gulf : 

"Sie: — Two communications from you of this date have this moment 
been received. One of them refers to the raising of volunteers or militia 
forces, stating that I ' must desist from the formation of any negro military 
organization,' and the other declaring, in a spirit contrary to all usage of 
military service, and to all the rights and liberties of a citizen of a free 
government, that my resignation will not be accepted by you ; that a leave 
of absence until its acceptance by the president will not be granted me ; 
and that I must see to it that your orders, which I could not obey without 
becoming a slave myself, are ' faithfully and diligently executed.' 

"It can be of but little consequence to me as to what kind of slavery I 
am to be subjected, whether to African slavery or to that which you thus 
so offensively propose for me, giving me an order wholly opposed to my 
convictions of right as well as of the higher scale of public necessities in 
the case, and insisting upon my complying with it faithfully and diligently, 
allowing me no room to escape with my convictions or my principles at 
any sacrifice that I may make. I can not submit to either kind of slavery, 
and can not, therefore, for a double reason, comply with your order of the 
31st of July ; in complying with which I should submit to both kinds — 
both to African slavery and to that to which you resort in its defense. 

" Desirous to the last of saving the public interests involved, I appeal to 
your sense of justice to reconsider your decision, and make the most to the 



510 



GENERAL, BUTLER AND GENERAL PHELPS. 



cause out of the sacrifice which I offer, by granting the quiet, proper, and 
customary action upon my resignation. By refusing my request, you would 
subject me to great inconvenience, without, as far as I can see, any advan- 
tage either to yourself or to the service. 

" With the view of securing myself a tardy justice in the case, being re- 
mote from the capital, where, the transmission of the. mails is remarkably 
irregular and uncertain, and in order to give you every assurance that my 
resignation is tendered in strict compliance with paragraph 29 of the regu 
lations, to be 'unconditional and immediate,' I herewith inclose a copy for 
the adjutant-general of the army, which I desire may be forwarded to hire 
to lay before the president for as early action in the case as his excellency 
may be pleased to accord. And as my position, sufficiently unpleasant al- 
ready, promises to become much more so still by the course of action which 
I am sorry to find that you deem it proper to pursue, I urgently request 
his excellency, by a speedy acceptance of my commission, to liberate me 
from that sense of suffocation, from that darkling sense of bondage and en- 
thrallment which, it appears to me, like the snake around the muscles and 
sinews of Laocoon, is entangling and deadening the energies of the gov- 
ernment and country, when a decisive act might cut the coils and liberate 
us from their baneful and fascinating influence for ever. 

" In conclusion of this communication, and I should also hope of my ser- 
vices in this department, I deem it my duty to state, lest it might not 
otherwise come to your notice, that several parties of the free colored meD 
of New Orleans have recently come to consult me on the propriety of rais- 
ing one or two regiments of volunteers from their class of the population 
for the defense of the government and good order, and that I have recom- 
mended them to propose the measure to you, having no power to act upon 
it myself. 

" I am, sir, very respectfully, 

" Your obedient servant, 

"J. W. Phelps, Brigadier- General. 

"P. So Monday, August 4. — The negroes increase rapidly. There arc 
doubtless now six hundred able-bodied men in camp. These, added tr 
those who are suffering uselessly in the prisons and jails of New Orleans 
and vicinity, and feeding from the general stock of provisions, would mak< 
a good regiment of one thousand men, who might contribute as much t( 
the preservation of law and good order as a regiment of Caucasians, an< 
probably much more. Now a mere burden, they might become a benefi 
cent element of governmental ppwer. 

"J.W.P." 

General Butler remained firm to his purpose. 



GENERAL BUTLEK AND GENERAL PHELPS. 



511 



" New Oeleans, August 4, 1862. 
"Geneeal: — Your communication of to-day has been received. I had 
forwarded your resignation on the day it was received, to the president of 
the United States, so that there will be no occasion of forwarding a dupli- 
cate. I am not at liberty to accept your resignation. I can not consist- 
ently with my duty and the orders of the war department grant you a leave 
of absence till it is accepted by the president, for want of officers to supply 
your place. 

"I see nothing unusual, nor do 1 intend anything so, in the refusal to ac- 
cept the resignation of an officer, where his place can not be at the present 
moment supplied. 

"I pray you to understand that there was nothing intended to be offen- 
sive to you in either the matter or manner of my communication. In 
directing you to cease military organization of the negroes, I do but carry 
out the law of congress as I understand it; and in doing which I have no 
choice. I can see neither African nor other slavery in the commander of 
the post clearing from the front of his line, by means of able-bodied men 
under his control, the trees and underbrush, which would afford cover and 
shelter to his enemies in case of attack, especially where the very measure, 
as a precautionary one, was advised by yourself; and while in defereDce to 
your age and experience as a soldier, and the appreciation I have of your 
many good qualities of heart, I have withdrawn and do withdraw anything 
you may find offensive in my communication ; still I must request a cate- 
gorical answer to this question : Will you or will you not employ a proper 
portion of the negroes now within your lines in cutting down the trees 
which afford cover to the enemy in the front and right of your line ? 

"I pray you to observe, that if there is anything of wrong in this order, 
that wrong is mine, for you have sufficiently protested against it. You are 
not responsible for it more than the hand that executes it ; it can offend 
neither your political nor moral sense. 

" With sentiments of the utmost kindness and respect, I am your obe- 
dient servant, 

" B. F. Btjtlee, Major- General Commanding. 
" Brigadier-General J. W. Phelps, commanding at Carrollton." 

General Phelps would not give the "categorical answer" re- 
quired. Instead of that, he favored the president with an unan- 
swerable argument in favor of employing the negroes as soldiers. 

"Camp Pakapet", La., August 5, 1862. 
u Major- General Benjamin I\ Btjtlee, commanding the Department of 
the Gulf, New Orleans, Louisiana : 
" Sie : — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communica- 



512 



GENERAL BUTLER AND GENERAL PHELPS. 



tion of yesterday, proposing a question for a categorical answer, which 
came to hand at a quarter before one o'clock p. m. to-day. 

"To propose a question, either specific or abstract, of obedience to orders, 
after I had tendered my resignation immediate and unconditional, seems to 
me hardly compatible with the ' sentiments of kindness 1 that you express. 
If I am to be detained here against my wishes because my place can not at 
present be supplied, then, at least, I ought not to be troubled with unneces- 
sary issues between my sense of obedience to orders, and my convictions 
and principles. I am willing to fill a place temporarily, and perform the 
routinary duties of my profession until the acceptance of my resignation ; 
but as I am left wholly destitute of the proper power and authority to meet 
the urgent and practical questions that come up every day for solution, it 
would seem to me idle to comply with merely one measure among many, 
especially when we have work enough already for our negroes to do, and 
when the order proposed, if extended to other obstructions as well as trees, 
would occasion a great amount of unnecessary labor and destruction. 

"My dear sir, it is not a question of obedience to orders between us. I 
fully appreciate the difficulties of your position, and the varied abilities, 
patriotism and untiring diligence which you have shown in meeting them ; 
and it is with great reluctance and regret that I have to trouble you with 
anything of my own ; but at a crisis in our national affairs so important as 
this, I should not be doing my duty either to the country or to the govern- 
ment — I should mislead them both, were I to remain quietly at my post, 
with the semblance, but without the power of fulfilling the duties incum- 
bent upon it. I should endanger and complicate public interests in this 
way, rather than serve them. 

" The distance of this station from the capital of the country ; the irregular- 
ity and studied uncertainty of the mails ; the uncongenial character of Latin 
laws and education, and slave labor to democratic institutions ; the specu- 
lating character of the people habituated to conspiratorial associations, idle 
combinations and fraudulent collusions ; all these and many other elements 
of disorder and opposition to legitimate authority, Lilliputian as they are 
when viewed by themselves, seem threatening to entangle the feeble, hesi- 
tating and undecided action of the government, and render its great and 
beneficent power of no avail. As it is, we seem to be in a foreign country 
rather than in the United States, not so much from the character of the 
people as from the want of action of the government upon it. 

" You ask me whether I will obey a certain order or not. With perfect 
iespect and deference for yourself and your position, I beg leave to be per- 
mitted in return to submit the following propositions to .his excellency the 
president of the United States, as those under which I could alone consent 
to serve. 

" 1st. The people purchased a large region of country called Louisiana, 



GENERAL BUTLER AND GENERAL PHELPS. 



513 



which, at the time of purchase, embraced a very considerable portion of 
the south-west, and they have a right to this territory for the purposes 
designed by their constitution, viz. : to secure the blessings of liberty to 
themselves and their posterity. 

"2d. The people are temporarily withheld from a full, perfect and peace 
able possession of this territory, by a few ambitious leaders and their de- 
luded partisans. 

11 3d. Every state of the Union is bound to furnish her share :f taxes 
and her quota of men for the suppression of domestic insurrection ; and the 
quota of men of the slave states should be based upon the total number of 
whites, and three-fifths of all other persons in those states. 

" 4th. Society here is on the verge of dissolution ; and it is the true policy 
of the government to seize upon the chief elements of disorder and anarchy, 
and employ them in favor of law and order. The African, ignorant and be- 
nighted, yet newly awakened to liberty, threatens to be a fearful element 
of ruin and disaster ; and the best way to prevent it, is to arm and organize 
him on the side of the government. 

"5th. The slave states have already gone through the chief suffering in- 
cident to a state of revolution ; and to return them to their former condition 
would be as impolitic as it would be cruel and impossible. 

" 6th. The system of labor in the South is ripe for and demands a change ; 
and a transition from forced to paid labor is of easy and necessary accom- 
plishment. 

'"7th. Military art and science, the most potent, and perhaps the only 
rudimentary element of civilizing power which has not yet been taught to 
the African during his bondage in America, is essential for extending the 
colony of Liberia, and opening up to civilization the cane and cotton lands 
of Africa. 

" Inclosing herewith a report of Major Peck, which discloses the condi- 
tion of things on the borders of Lake Pontchartrain, I have the honor to re- 
main, with sentiments of high esteem, 

"Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"J. W. Phelps, Brigadier- General." 

Here the correspondence rested for a month ; when another col- 
lision occurred between the generals. Three slaves from the New 
Orleans gas works ran away and found refuge at Camp Parapet. 
Colonel French ordered them to be returned. General Phelps ob- 
jected on two grounds; 1. An article of war forbade the return of 
fugitive slaves ; 2. The men had been inhumanly punished. Gen- 
eral Butler, however, peremptorily ordered them to be given up. 
" They belong," said he, " to the gas-works, which are now under 



514 



GENEEAL BUTLEE AND GENEEAL PHELPS. 



military authority, and we need them for public service. A proper 
investigation, whether they have been improperly or inhumanly pun- 
ished or not, shall be made." 

The resignation of General Phelps was accepted by the govern- 
ment. He received notification of the fact on the 8th of Septem- 
ber, and immediately prepared to return to his farm in Vermont. 
All of his command loved him, from the drummer-boys to the 
colonels, whether they approved or disapproved his course on the 
negro question. He was such a commander as soldiers love ; 
firm, gentle, courteous ; gentlest and most courteous to the low- 
liest ; with a vein of quaint humor that relieved the severity of 
military rule, and supplied the camp-gossips with anecdotes. His 
officers gathered about him, before his departure, to say farewell. 
He was touched with the compliment, for he had been accustomed, 
for twenty years, to live among his comrades in a lonely minority 
of one ; respected, it is true, and beloved, but beloved rather as a 
noble lunatic than as a wise and noble man. 

" Gentlemen," said he, in his fine, simple manner, " I wish, earn- 
estly, that I were able to reply to you — that I had been gifted 
with the faculty or practiced in the habit of public speaking — so 
that I might make some fitting answer to the kind words which 
you have addressed to me ; so that I might express my gratitude 
for the feelings which prompt you to come here. This is the 
greatest compliment I ever received in my life. Indeed, this is 
the only compliment of the kind I ever received. Lieutenant- 
Colonel Lall traced out to you, in more flattering colors than the 
subject deserved, my military career, and you observed that it has 
almost all been on the frontier, or at small military posts, where I 
would naturally not come in contact with large social gatherings, 
so that I have never been exposed, even had I deserved it, to re- 
ceive compliments like this which you offer me. Therefore it is 
that I now wish, for the first time, that I possessed the gift of 
utterance ; and I assure you that I desire it solely because I am 
extremely grateful for this expression of your regard. 

" So far as the motives which prompted me to the step which I have 
taken are concerned, I do not see any reason to regret it. My heart 
tells me that, under the circumstances, I did right in resigning my 
commission. But I do regret exceedingly that its first consequence 
will be to separate me from your society. I am truly sorry to part 



GENERAL BUTLER AND GENERAL PHELPS. 



516 



with you. I was greatly struck — I was most favorably impressed — 
with your appearance, and bearing, and expression, when you arrived 
to re-enforce me at Ship Island. I was touched when I thought I saw 
in your looks that you felt your true position ; that you realized that 
you had left your business and homes to fight in an extraordinarily 
just and holy war ; that your souls were full of the motives which 
ought to move men who enter into a conflict for country and 
liberty. As I watched our division review there, I was more than 
ever impressed with this appearance of moral nobleness. I had 
seen armies before, but never such an army as that ; never an army 
which knew it had come out to fight for the highest principles of 
right, for the good of humanity, and for nothing else. 

" And here, in Louisiana, I have seen you growing up to be true 
soldiers. You have borne, worthily, sickness and exposure. You 
have carried your comrades every day to the grave, and yet you 
have not been discouraged, but have been patient, and cheerful, 
and assiduous in your duties. As I have watched this, I have 
learned to value and esteem you ; and, therefore, I am all the more 
grateful for the good-will which you show me. 

" Yet, I must not believe that this kind feeling has been aroused 
solely by what I am personally. It must come chiefly from the 
fact that you look upon me as in some measure the exponent of a 
great and just cause. It is because you sympathize more or 
less with me in my hatred of slavery. Perhaps some of you are 
not yet of my opinion. Perhaps the past has still a strong hold 
upon your sentiments. But I firmly believe — yes, I have a happy 
confidence — that, before another year is finished, your hearts wili 
all be where mine is on this question. And let me tell you that 
this faith is no small consolation for the trial of leaving you. 

" And now, with earnest wishes for your welfare, and aspira- 
tions for the success of the great cause for which you are here, I 
bid you good-by." 

When, at length, the government had arrived at a negro policy, 
diid was arming slaves, the president offered General Phelps a 
major-general's commission. He replied, it is said, that he would 
willingly accept the commission if it were dated back to the day 
of his resignation, so as to carry with it an approval of his course 
at Camp Parapet. This was declined, and General Phelps remains 
in retirement. I suppose the president felt that an indorsement of 
22* 



516 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE NEGROES. 



General Phelps's conduct would imply a censure of General Butler, 
whose conduct every candid person, I think, must admit, was just, 
forbearing, magnanimous. 

We can not but regret that General Phelps could not have sym- 
pathized in some degree with the painful necessities of General 
Butler's position, and endeavored for a while to " get along" with 
the negro difficulty at Camp Parapet, as General Butler was 
striving to do at New Orleans. We should remember, however, 
that General Phelps had been waiting and longing for twenty-five 
years, and he could not foresee that, in six months more, the gov- 
ernment would be as eager as himself in arming the slaves against 
their oppressors. 



CHAPTER XXVLH. 

GENERAL BUTLER ARMS THE EREE COLORED MEN, AND FIND& 
WORK FOR THE FUGITIVE SLAVES. 

General Phelps might have seen the dawn of a brighter day, 
even before his departure. General Butler himself could wait no 
longer for the tardy action of the government. Denied re-enforce- 
ments from the North, he had determined to " call on Africa" to 
assist him in defending New Orleans from threatened attack. The 
spirited assault upon Baton Rouge on the fifth of August, though 
it was so gallantly repulsed by General Williams and his command, 
was a warning not to be disregarded. All the summer, General 
Butler had been asking for re-enforcements, pointing to the growing 
strength of Vicksburg, the rising batteries at the new rebel post 
of Port Hudson, the inviting condition of Mobile, the menacing 
camps near New Orleans, the virulence of the secessionists in the 
city. The uniform answer from the war department was : We can 
not spare you one man ; we will send you men when we have them 
to send. You must hold New Orleans by all means and at all 
hazards. 

So the general called on Africa. Not upon the slaves, but 



GENERAL BUTLEE AXD THE NEGROES. 



517 



upon the free colored men of the city, whom General Jackson nad 
enrolled in 1814, and Governor Moore in 1861. He sent for sev- 
eral of the most influential of this class, and conversed freely with 
them upon his project. He asked them why they had accepted 
service .under the Confederate government, which was set up for 
the distinctly avowed purpose of holding in eternal slavery their 
brethren and kindred. They answered, that they had not dared to 
refuse ; that they had hoped, by serving the Confederates, to ad- 
vance a little nearer to equality with whites ; that they longed to 
throw the weight of their class into the scale of the Union, and only 
asked an opportunity to show their devotion to the cause with 
which their own dearest hopes were identified. The general took 
them at their word. The proper orders were issued. Enlistment 
offices were opened. Colored men were commissioned. Of the 
first colored regiment, all the field officers were white men, and all 
the line officers colored. Of the second, the colonel and lieutenant- 
colonel alone were white men, and all the rest colored. For the 
third, the officers were selected without the slightest regard to 
color ; the best men that offered were taken, white or yellow. The 
two batteries of artillery were officered wholly by white men, for 
the simple reason that no colored men acquainted with artillery 
presented themselves as candidates for the commissions. 

The free colored men of New Orleans flew to arms. Oue of the 
regiments of a thousand men was completed in fourteen days. In 
a very few weeks, General Butler had his three regiments of in- 
fantry and two batteries of artillery enrolled, equipped, officered, 
drilled, and ready for service. Better soldiers never shouldered 
arms. They were zealous, attentive, obedient, and intelligent. No 
men in the Union army had such a stake in the contest as they. 
B'ew understood it as well as they. The best blood of the South 
flowed in their veins, and a great deal of it ; for " the darkest of 
them," said General Butler, " were about of the complexion of the 
late Mr. Webster." At Port Hudson, in the summer of 1863, these 
fine regiments, though shamefully despoiled of the colored officers 
to whom General Butler gave commissions, demonstrated to the 
whole army that witnessed their exploits, and to the whole country 
that read of them, their right to rank with the soldiers of the Union 
as brothers in arms. 

This bold measure of General Butler — bold a year ago — was not 



518 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE NEGROES. 



achieved without opposition. Public opinion, in New Orleans, was 
thus divided in regard to arming the free colored men: nearly 
every Union man in the city favored it ; every secessionist opposed 
it. Many of the Union officers had not yet traveled far enough 
away from old hunkerism to approve the measure, but a large 
minority of them warmly seconded their general. There was but 
one breach of the peace in the city in connection with the colored 
troops. A party of them were stoned by some low Frenchmen, 
who, it appears, received, at the hands of the assailed soldiers, 
prompt and condign punishment. Need I say, that the French 
consul complained to General Butler ? The general set the consul 
right as to the facts of the case, and, at the same time, asked him 
" to warn his countrymen against the prejudices they may have im- 
bibed, the same as were lately mine, against my colored soldiers, 
because their race is of the same hue and blood as those of your 
celebrated compatriot and author, Alexander Dumas, who, I be- 
lieve, is treated with the utmost respect in Paris." In fact, a ma- 
jority of these colored soldiers are whiter men than Dumas. 

In November, the colored regiments were employed in the field, 
in an expedition upon the western bank of the river. They were 
not engaged in actual conflict with the enemy, but their conduct, 
on all occasions, was most exemplary and soldier-like. Their pres- 
ence in a region where there were ten slaves to one white man, was 
thought by General Weitzel to tend to provoke an insurrection. 
He was in so much dread of such an event, that he asked General 
Butler to relieve him of the command. The general replied in his 
usual exhaustive manner. 

"You say," wrote General Butler, "that in these organizations 
you have no confidence. As your reading must have made you 
aware, General Jackson entertained a different opinion upon that 
subject. It was arranged between the commanding general and 
yourself, that the colored regiments should be employed in guard- 
ing the railroad. You don't complain, in your report, that they 
either failed in this duty, or that they have acted otherwise than 
correctly and obediently to the commands of their officers, or that 
they have committed any outrage or pillage upon the inhabitants. 
The general was aware of your opinion, that colored men will not 
fight. You have failed to show, by the conduct of these free men, 
so far, anything to sustain that opinion. And the general can no; 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE NEGROES. 



519 



see why you should decline the command, especially as you express 
a willingness to go forward to meet the only organized enemy with 
your brigade alone, without farther support. The commanding 
general can not see how the fact that they are guarding your line 
of communication by railroad, can weaken your defense. He must, 
therefore, look to the other reasons stated by you, for an explana- 
tion of your declining the command. 

"You say that since the arrival of the negro regiment you have 
seen symptoms of a servile insurrection. But, as the only regiment 
that arrived there got there as soon as your own command, of 
course the appearance of such symptoms is since their arrival. 

" Have you not mistaken the cause ? Is it the arrival of a negro 
regiment, or is it the arrival of United States troops, carrying by the 
act of congress freedom to this servile race ? Did you expect to 
march into that country, drained, as you say it is, by conscription 
of all its able-bodied white men, without leaving the negroes free 
to show symptoms of servile insurrection ? Does not this state of 
things arise from the very fact of war itself? You are in a country 
where now the negroes outnumber the whites ten to one, and these 
whites are in rebellion against the government, or in terror seeking 
its protection. Upon reflection, can you doubt that the same state 
of things would have arisen without the presence of a colored regi- 
ment ? Did you not see symptoms of the same things upon the 
plantations here upon our arrival, although under much less favora- 
ble circumstances for revolt ? 

" You say that the prospect of such an insurrection is heart-rend- 
ing, and that you can not be responsible for it. The responsibility 
rests upon those who have begun and carried out this war, and who 
have stopped at no barbarity, at no act of outrage, upon the citi- 
zens and soldiers of the United States. You have forwarded me the 
records of a pretended court-martial, showing that seven men 
one of your regiments, who enlisted here in the Eighth Vermont, 
who had surrendered themselves prisoners of war, were in cold 
blood murdered, and, as certain information shows me, required to 
dig their own graves ! You are asked if this is not an occurrence 
as heart-rending as a prospective servile insurrection. 

" The question is now to be met, whether, in a hostile, rebellious 
part of the state, where this very murder has been committed by 
the militia, you are to stop in the operations of the field to put 



620 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE NEGROES. 



down servile insurrection, because the men and women are terror 
stricken ? When ever was it heard before that a victorious general, 
in an unsurrendered province, stopped in his course for the purpose 
of preventing the rebellious inhabitants of that province from de- 
stroying each other, or refuse to take command of a conquered 
province lest he should be made responsible for their self-destruc- 
tion? 

" As a military question, perhaps, the more terror-stricken the 
inhabitants are that are left in your rear, the more safe will be your 
lines of communication. You say there have appeared before your 
eyes the very facts, in terror-stricken women and children and men, 
which you had before contemplated in theory. Grant it. But is 
not the remedy to be found in the surrender of the neighbors, 
fathers, brothers, and sons of the terror-stricken women and chil- 
dren, who are now in arms against the government within twenty 
miles of you ? And when that is done, and you have no longer to 
fear from these organized forces, and they have returned peaceably to 
their homes, you will be able to use the full pow r er of your troops 
to insure your safety from the so much feared (by them, not by you) 
servile insurrection. 

"If you desire, you can send a flag of truce to the commander 
of these forces, embracing these views, and placing upon him the 
responsibility which belongs to him. Even that course will not 
remove it from you, for upon you it has never rested. Say to them, 
that if all armed opposition to the authority of the United States 
shall cease in Louisiana, on the west bank of the river, you are 
authorized by the commanding general to say, that the same pro- 
tection against negro or other violence will be afforded that part of 
Louisiana that has been in the part already in the possession of the 
United States If that is refused, whatever may ensue is upon 
them, and not upon you or upon the United States. You will have 
done all that is required of a brave, humane man, to avert from 
these deluded people the horrible consequences of their insane war 
upon the government. * * * * 

" Consider this case. General Bragg is at liberty to ravage the 
houses of our brethren of Kentucky because the Union army of 
Louisiana are protecting nis wife and his home against his negroes. 
Without that protection he would have to come back to take care 
of his wife, his home and his negroes. It is understood that Mrs. 



GENEEAL BUTLER AND THE NEGE0ES. 



521 



Bragg is one of the terrified women of whom you speak in your 
report. 

" This subject is not for the first time under the consideration of 
the commanding general. When in command of the Department 
of Annapolis, in May, 1861, he was asked to protect a community 
against the consequences of a servile insurrection. He replied, that 
when that community laid down its arms, and called upon him for 
protection, he would give it, because from that moment between 
them and him war would cease. The same principle initiated there 
will govern his and your actions now ; and you will afford such 
protection as soon as the community through its organized rulers 
shall ask it. 

" * * * * In the mean time, these colored regiments of free men, 
raised by the authority of the president, and approved by him as 
the commander-in-chief of the army, must be commanded by the 
officers of the army of the United States, like any other regi- 
ment." 

General Butler, however, while continuing General Weitzel in 
command, contrived to gratify him by placing the colored troops 
under another officer, one who believed in them. General Weitzel, 
in acknowledging this complaisance, remarked that if the colored 
troops, in action, proved only half as trustworthy as General But- 
ler thought them, the rebellion would most certainly be crushed. 

General Weitzel has since had an opportunity of witnessing the 
conduct of colored troops in battle. If he was not convinced by 
General Butler's reasoning, he must have been convinced by what 
he saw of the conduct of these very colored regiments at Port 
Hudson, where he himself gave such a glorious example of pru- 
dence and gallantry. I may add, that the country owes the pro- 
motion of this accomplished officer from the rank of lieutenant of 
engineers to that of brigadier-general of volunteers, to the discern 
ment of General Butler, who twice urged it upon the war depart- 
ment. The heroic Strong was another of General Butler's recom- 
mendations to the same rank. Few men would have ventured to 
ask such sudden advancement for officers not thirty-two years of 
age. Fort Wagner and Port Hudson justified their almost un- 
precedented promotion. 

As the season advanced, the negro question did not diminish in 
difficulty. The number of fugitives constantly increased, until, in 



522 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE XEGROES. 



the city alone, there were ten thousand, many of whom were 
women and children, and all of whom were dependent upon the 
government for support. There were great numbers at Fort 
Jackson, Fort St. Philip and Camp Parapet. -Many plantations 
had been abandoned by their owners, and the negroes remained in 
their huts idle and destitute. The conquests of General Weitzel 
greatly added to the number of abandoned and confiscated planta- 
tions, and set free thousands of slaves. From the starving country 
bordering on the lakes whole families of whites were continually 
coming to the city, sometimes bringing their slaves with them^ 
sometimes leaving them behind to wander off to the nearest post. 
Society, as General Phelps had remarked, seemed on the point of 
dissolution, and General Butler saw before him a prospect of 
having a countless host of white and black looking to him for dailv 
bread. 

He determined, in October, to take the responsibility of working 
the abandoned plantations on behalf of the United States, their 
rightful owner, and of employing upon them his fugitive and 
emancipated slaves at fair wages. The first of his special orders 
relating to this matter has an historical interest and value : 

" New Obleans, October 20, 1862. 

" Special Oedee, No. 441. 

"It appearing to the commanding general, that the sugar plantations of 
Brown and McMannus have been abandoned by their late owners, who are 
in the rebellion, are now running to waste, and the valuable crops will be 
lost, as well to the late owners as to the United States, if they are not 
wrought ; and as large numbers of negroes have come and are coming 
within the lines of the army, who need employment, it is ordered: 

" That Charles A. Weed, Esq., take charge of such plantations, and such 
others as may be abandoned along the river, between the city and Fort Jack- 
son, and gather and make these crops for the benefit of the United States, 
keeping an exact and accurate account of the expenses of such. 

" That Mr. Weed's requisition for labor be answered by the several com- 
manders of camps for labor ; or, in the scarcity of contrabands, that Mr. Weed 
may employ white laborers at one dollar each per day, or each ten hours' 
labor. 

" That for any stores or necessaries for such work, the quartermaster's or 
commissary's department will answer Mr. Weed's approved requisitions. 

u That said Weed shall be paid such rate of compensation as may be 
agreed on ; and that all receipts of whatever nature from such plantation* 



GENERAL BUTLER AND TUE NEGROES. 



523 



be accurately accounted for by him ; and that for this purpose Mr. Weed 
shall be considered in the military service of the United States. 

"By command of Major-General Butler. 

" George 0. Strong, A. A. 

But this was not all. Among the papers relating to the negroes , 
of Louisiana, there is a document still more interesting. It con- 
tains the plan devised by the commanding general for enabling 
the loyal planters to give a trial to the system of free labor : 

"New Orleans, La., October 18, 1862. 

"Memorandum of an agreement, entered into between the planters, loyal 
citizens of the United States, in the parishes of ' St. Bernard' and ' Plaque- 
mines,' in the state of Louisiana, and the civil and military authorities of the 
United States in said state. 

" Whereas, many of the persons held to service and labor have left their 
masters and claimants, and have come to the city of New Orleans, and to the 
camps of the army of the gulf, and are claiming to be emancipated and free , 

" And whereas, these men and women are in a destitute condition ; 

" And whereas, it is clearly the duty, by law, as well as in humanity, of 
the United States to provide them with food and clothing, and to employ 
them in some useful occupation ; 

u And whereas, it is necessary that the crop of cane and cereals now 
growing and approaching maturity in said parishes shall be preserved, and 
the levees repaired and«strengthened against floods ; 

"And whereas, the planters claim that these persons* are still held to ser- 
vice and labor, and of right ought to labor for their masters, and that the 
ruin of their crops and plantations will happen if deprived of such services ; 

" And whereas, these conflicting rights and claims can not immediately 
be determined by any tribunals now existing in the state of Louisiana : 

" In order, therefore, to preserve the rights of all parties, as well those 
of the planters as of the persons claimed as held to service and labor, and 
claiming their freedom, and those of the United States ; and to preserve the 
crops and property of loyal citizens of the United States ; and to provide 
profitable employment at the rate of compensation fixed by act of congress 
for those persons who have come within the lines of the army of the United 
States, 

s " It is agreed and determined, that the United States will employ all the 
persons heretofore held to labor on the several plantations in the parishes 
of St. Bernard and Plaquemines belonging to loyal citizens as they have 
heretofore been employed, and as nearly as may be under the charge of the 
loyal planters and overseers of said parishes and other necessary direction. 

" The United States will authorize or provide suitable guards and patrol* 
to preserve order and prevent crime in the said parishes. 



524 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE NEGROES. 



" The planters shall pay for the services of each able-bodied male person 
ten (10) dollars per month, three (3) of which may be expended for neces- 
sary clothing ; and for each woman ( — ) dollars ; and for each child 

above the age of ten (10) years, and under the age of sixteen (16) years, the 

sum of ( — ) dollars ; all the persons above the age of sixteen years 

being considered as men and women for the purpose of labor. 

''Planters shall furnish suitable and proper food for each of these labor- 
ers, and take care of them, and furnish proper medicines in case of sick- 
ness. 

kk The planters shall also suitably provide for all the persons incapacitated 
by sickness or age from labor, bearing the relation of parent, child or wife, 
of the laborer so laboring for "him. 

" Ten hours a day shall be a day's labor ; and any extra hours during 
which the laborer may be called by the necessities of the occasion to work, 
shall be returned as so much toward another day's labor. Twenty-six 
days, of ten hours each, shall make a month's labor. It shall be the duty of 
the overseer to keep a true and exact account of the time of labor of each 
person, and any wrong or inaccuracy therein, shall forfeit a month's pay to 
the person so wronged. 

u No cruel or corporal punishment shall be inflicted by any one upon the 
person so laboring, or upon his or her relatives ; but any insubordination or 
refusal to perform suitable labor, or other crime or offense, shall be at once 
reported to the provost-marshal for the district, and punishment suitable 
for the offense shall be inflicted under his orders, preferably imprisonment 
in darkness on bread and water. 

" This agreement to continue at the pleasure of the United States. 

" If any planter of the parishes of St. Bernard or Plaquemines refuses to 
enter into this agreement or remains a disloyal citizen, the persons claimed 
to be held to service by him may hire themselves to any loyal planter, or 
the United States may elect to carry on his plantation by their own agents, 
and other persons than those thus claimed may be hired by any planter at 
his election. 

u It is expressly understood and agreed that this arrangement shall not 
be held to affect, after its termination, the legal rights of either master or 
slave; but that the question of freedom or slavery is to be determined by 
considerations wholly outside of the provisions of this contract, provided 
always, that the abuse by any master or overseer of any persons laboring 
under the provisions of this contract, shall, after trial and adjudication by 
the military or other courts, emancipate the person so abused." 

And, now, what were the results of the experiment ? We have 
explicit information on this point. 

Among those who heard of the startling innovation, none list- 



GEXEEAL BUTLER AND THE XEGEOES. 



525 



eued to the tale with deeper interest than the president of the 
United States. Mr. Chase read to him one of General Butler's 
private letters upon the subject, and the president then wrote a 
note to the general, asking detailed information. The president 
was also curious to know something respecting the election of 
members of congress in Louisiana, then about to take place. 
General Butler replied in a letter, which the citizens of free 
Louisiaua will consider historically important : 

"Our experiment," wrote the general, November 28th, 1862, 
*■ in attempting the cultivation of sugar by free labor, I am happy 
to report, is succeeding admirably. I am informed by the govern- 
ment agent who has charge, that upon one of the plantations, 
where sugar is being made by the negroes who had escaped there- 
from into our hues, and have been sent back under wages, that with 
the same negroes and the same machinery, by free labor, a hogshead 
and a half more of sugar has been made in a day than was ever 
before made in the same time on the plantation under slave labor. 

" Your friend, Colonel Shaffer, has had put up, to be forwarded 
to you, a barrel of the first sugar ever made by free black labor in 
Louisiana ; and the fact that it will have no flavor of the degrading 
whip, will not, I know, render it less sweet to your taste. The 
planters seem to have been struck with a sort of judicial blindness, 
and some of them so deluded have abandoned their crops rather 
than work them with free labor. I offered them, as a basis, a con- 
tract, a copy of which is inclosed for your information. It was re- 
jected by many of them, because they would not relinquish the 
rio-ht to use the whip, although I have provided a punishment for 
the refractory, by means of the provost-marshal, as you will see — 
imprisonment in darkness, on bread and water. I did not feel that 
I had a right, by the military power of the United States, to send 
back to be scourged, at the will of their former and, in some cases, 
infuriated masters, those black men who had fled to me for protec- 
tion ; while I had no doubt of my right to employ them under the 
sharo-e of whomsoever I mio-ht choose, to work for the benefit of 
:hemselves and the government. I have, therefore, caused the 
legroes to be informed that they should have the same rights as to 
reedom, if so the law was, on the plantation as if they were in 
,;amp ; and they have, in a great majority of instances, gone wili- 
ng^ to work, and work with a will. They were, at first, a little 



526 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE NEGROES. 



averse to going back, lest they should lose some rights which would 
come to them in camp ; but, upon our assurances, are quite content. 

" I think this scheme can be carried out without loss to the gov- 
ernment, and I hope with profit enough to enable us to support, for 
six months longer, the starving whites and blacks here, — a some- 
what herculean task. 

" We are feeding now daily, in the city of New Orleans, more 
than thirty-two thousand whites, seventeen thousand of whom are 
British-born subjects, and mostly claiming British protection ; and 
only about two thousand of whom are American citizens, the rest 
being of the several nationalities who are represented here from all 
parts of the globe. 

" Besides these, we have some ten thousand negroes to feed, be- 
sides those at work on the plantations, principally women and chil- 
dren. All this has, thus far, been done without any draft upon the 
treasury, although how much longer we can go on, is a problem of 
which I am now anxiously seeking the solution. * * * 

" The operations of General Weitzel, in the Lafourche country, 
the richest sugar planting part of Louisiana, have opened to us a 
very large number of slaves, all of whom, under the act, are free ; and 
large crops of sugar, as well those already made, as those in pro- 
cess of being made. * * * All this portion of the country are rapidly 
returning to their allegiance, and the elections are being organized 
for Wednesday next, and I doubt not a large vote wij be thrown. 

" I bound Dr. Cotman not to be one of the candidates in the field. 
He had voluntarily signed the ordinance of secession as one of the con- 
vention which passed it, and had sat for his portrait in the cartoon 
which was intended to render those signers immortal, and which 
was published and exhibited here in imitation of the picture of out 
signers of the declaration of independence ; and as the doctor had 
never, by any public act, testified his abnegation of that act of sign- 
ing, I thought it would be best that the government should not be 
put to the scandal of having a person so situated elected, although 
the doctor may be a good Union man now. So I very strongly 
advised him against the candidature. It looked too much like 
Aaron Burr's attempt to run for a seat in parliament, after he went 
to England to avoid his complication in the Mexican affairs and 
his combat with Hamilton. It is but fair to say that Doctor Cot- 
man, after some urging, concluded to withdraw his name from the 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE NEGROES. 



527 



canvass. Two unconditional Union men will be elected. I fear 
however, we shall lose Mr. Bouligny. He was imprudent enough 
to run for the office of justice of peace under the secessionists, and 
although I believe him always to have been a good Union man, 
and to have sought that office for personal reasons only, yet that 
fact tells against him. However, Mr. Flanders will be elected in 
his district, and a more reliable or better Union man can not be 
found. 

" But to return to our negroes. I find this difficulty in pros- 
pect : Many of the planters here, while professing loyalty, and I 
doubt not feeling it, if the ' institution' can be spared to them, have 
agreed together not to make any provision this autumn for another 
crop of sugar next season, hoping thereby to throw upon us this 
winter an immense number of blacks, without employment and 
without any means of support for the future ; the planters them- 
selves living upon what they made from this crop. Thus, no pro- 
vision being made for the crop either of corn, potatoes or cereals, the 
government will be obliged to come to their terms for the future 
employment of the negroes, or to be at enormous expenses to sup- 
port them. 

" We shall have to meet this as best we may. Of course, we are 
not responsible for what may be done outside of our lines, but here 
I shall make what provisions I can for the future, as well for the 
-cereal and root crop as the cane. We shall endeavor to get a stock 
of cane laid down on all the plantations worked by government, 
and to preserve seed corn and potatoes to meet this contingency. 

" I shall send out my third regiment of Native Guards (colored), 
and set them to work preserving the cane and roots for a cro' 
next year. 

" It can not be supposed that this great change in a social and 
political system can be made without a shock ; and I am only sur- 
prised that the possibility opens up to me that it can be made at 
all. Certain it is, and I speak the almost universal sentiment and 
opinion of my officers, that slavery is doomed! I have no doubt 
of it ; and with every prejudice and early teaching against the result 
to which my mind has been irresistibly brought by my experience 
here, I am now convinced : 

" 1st. That labor can be done in this state by whites, and more 
economically than by blacks and slaves. 



528 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE NEGROES. 



" 2d. That black labor can be as well governed, used, and made a& 
profitable in a state of freedom as in slavery. 

" 3d. That while it would have been better could this emancipa- 
tion of the slaves be gradual, yet it is quite feasible even under 
this great change, as a governmental proposition, to organize, con- 
trol and work the negro with profit and safety to the white ; but 
this can be best done under military supervision." 

"Slavery is doomed!" So says General Rosecrans, also. So 
says the reticent and modest General Grant. So says, I believe, 
every officer who has served in the heart of a slave state. We shall 
see, in a moment, by what means the true nature of slavery was 
brought home to the mind of General Butler, so that he not only 
foresaw, but exulted in the downfall of the " institution." 

The perfect behavior of the black men in their new character of 
free laborers has been often remarked. A whole book full of testi- 
mony on this point could be adduced. If it be objected, that Gen- 
eral Butler had too short an experience of his system to be able to 
judge its results, we can point to the testimony of men now in 
Louisiana, who have observed the working of the free-labor system 
for more than a year. One highly intelligent gentleman has recent- 
ly written from New Orleans : 

" No one has properly noticed how well the slaves in the South 
have maintained their difficult position. From the commencement 
up to this time they have in no instance called upon their heads the 
indignation of their masters by any impudent expression or untime- 
ly outbreak. Whenever our forces have afforded them an oppor- 
tunity to break their bonds, they have done it promptly and effi- 
ciently; but they have, with rare prudence, not involved themselves 
in difficulties which would be fruitless of substantial good to their 
interests. This conduct on their part, it seems to me, exhibits a 
large amount of intellectual ability ; for they have had the intelli- 
gence, while thoroughly understanding the nature of the revolution 
going on around them, of heartily sympathizing with the enemy; 
yet they have been secretive enough to keep their real opinions in 
their own hearts until the proper time came to give them utterance, 
I know of no people who, under the circumstances, could have 
acted better or wiser."* 



* New York Times, October, 1863. 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE NEGROES. 



529 



The following general order, which explains itself, as most of 
General Butler's orders do, is part of the history of his dealing 
with the negro question in New Orleans : 

"New Okleans, November 21, 1862. 

" A commission, to consist of Colonel T. W. Cahill, commanding United 
States forces in New Orleans and Algiers ; Colonel H. C. Deming, acting 
mayor of New Orleans ; E. H. Durell, chairman bureau, of finance of New 
Orleans, is hereby appointed to determine the amount due as jail expenses 
from the United States, on account of negroes already released from the 
police jail, to be employed by the government. 

"Hereafter, no negro slave will be confined in that jail, unless such 
expenses are prepaid, the slave to be released when the money is ex- 
hausted. 

" It is also ordered, that a list of the reputed owners of slaves now in the 
police jail be published, and that all slaves whose jail fees are not paid with- 
in ten days after such publication, be discharged. This is the course taken 
in all countries with debtors confined by creditors; and slaves have not such 
commercial value in New Orleans as to justify their being held and fed by 
the city, relying upon any supposed lien upon the slave." 

This order set free a considerable number of slaves left in jail for 
safe keeping, by officers serving in the rebel armies. It also limited 
one of the worst abuses of the system. 

The president's proclamation of freedom, which took effect Jan- 
uary 1st, 1863, suggested to General Butler's fertile genius a meas- 
ure which, it is greatly to be deplored, he had not time to carry 
out before his sudden recall. The proclamation, it will be remem- 
bered, exempted from emancipation certain parishes of Louisiana, 
which were already in the possession of the United States. It was 
well known to General Butler that a large proportion of the slaves 
in those parishes belonged to foreign-born " neutrals," whose sym- 
pathy with secession had given him so much trouble. It occurred 
to him to inquire whether, by French law, those Frenchmen could 
hold slaves in a foreign country. Consulting with a French jurist 
on the subject, he received from him the following statement re- 
specting the law of the French empire. The information which it 
contains may become valuable, ere long, to commanders of depart- 
ments in the south-west. 



530 



GENEBAL BUTLER AND THE NEGROES. 



G-enebal Collection of Jtjeispeudexce. — Supplement. — Volume Fibst. 

Slavery. — Slave. 

"No. 40. 1st. In 1848, upon the advent of the republic, one of the first 
acts of the provisional government was to institute a commission, ordered 
to prepare the act of emancipation of the slaves in the colonies of the 
French republic. March 4th, 1848. 

u 2d. A short time afterward, the decree of April 27th, 1848, was ren- 
dered, which abolished slavery in all the French colonies and possessions. 

u Sd. Article 8, of this decree, accorded a delay of three years to all 
French citizens, established in foreign countries, to set free or alienate the 
slaves belonging to them. A law of February 11th, 1851, fixed the delay 
at ten years. 

" 5th. Later, the article 6th of the constitution of November 4th, 1848, 
proclaimed that ' slavery could not exist upon any French soil.' 

"6th. At last the terms of article 4th of the Senatus-Consulte of May 
3d, 1854, were : ' slavery can never be reestablished in the French colonies.' 

" However, in proclaiming the freedom of slaves, the decree of April 27th, 
1848, granted that an indemnity should be accorded to planters, and the 
'national assembly' should arrange the quota (article 5th). This was the 
object of the law of April 30th, 1849. 

" The indemnity has been accorded. 

" Therefore, the provisional government has, by two energetical acts, re- 
solutely decided the question of the emancipation of the slaves. 

" The first is the emancipation in the short time of two months ; this is 
article 1st, of the decree of April 27th, 1848. 

" The second is explained in article Sth of the same decree. 

" This article reads as follows : 

" 1 In future, even in foreign countries, it is forbidden to any Frenchman 
to possess, purchase, or sell slaves, and to participate directly or indirectly 
in any traffic or emolument of that kind. Any infraction of these provi- 
sions will entail the loss of French citizenship. 

" ' Nevertheless, those Frenchmen who find themselves affected by these 
prohibitions, at the time of the promulgation of the present decree, will be 
allowed a delay of three years to conform to it. Those who shall become 
possessors of slaves in foreign countries by heritage, gift or marriage, must, 
under the same penalty, either free or alienate them within the same period, 
calculating from the day when their possession will have commenced. 1 

" Law modifying paragraph 2d of article 8th, decree of April 22d, 1848, 
relative to proprietors of slaves. 

" (Bull : Official, No. 5,627.) 
" (May 28, 1858), promulgated June 5th. Article 1st, paragraph 2d, of 
article 8th, of the decree of April 27, 1848, is modified as follows : 



GENERAL BUTLER AND THE NEGROES. 



531 



'' ' The present article is not applicable to proprietors of slaves, whose 
possession is anterior to the decree of April 27th, 1848, whether resulting 
from succession, donation during life, or testamentary, or from matrimonial 
agreements.' " 

It thus appeared, that no French citizen in Louisiana could law- 
fully own a slave. English law forbade the owning of slaves by 
British subjects in any part of the world, under heavy penalties. 
The confiscation act emancipated the slaves of rebels. So that, 
while the proclamation of January 1st appeared to retain in servi- 
tude eighty-seven thousand slaves in Louisiana, General Butler 
deemed it feasible, by enforcing the laws of France and England, 
and by the complete execution of the confiscation act, to give free- 
dom to nearly the whole number of these eighty-seven thousand 
slaves. Probably not more than seven thousand of the eighty-seven 
thousand were the property of loyal citizens. The rest were free 
by the laws of France, England, or the United States. While he 
was considering the best means of bringing those laws to bear 
in " extending the area of freedom," the coming of his successor 
was announced by rebel telegraph, straight from the recesses of the 
French legation at the city of Washington. I should add, that the 
British consul, Mr. Coppell, who now appeared to be on friendly 
terms with the commanding general, entered warmly into the half- 
formed scheme. 

I shall take leave of this subject by relating several anecdotes 
illustrative of the practical working of slavery in Louisiana, and of 
the manner in which the system presented itself there to the hunker 
mind. Most of these stories I had the pleasure of hearing General 
Butler himself relate. 
23 



182 



REPRESENTATIVE NEGRO ANECDOTES. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

REPRESENTATIVE NEGRO ANECDOTES. 

Specimen of the Provost Oowrt Slave Cases. 

John Montamax, a free man of color, married a colored woman, 
who was a slave. Both were light mulattoes. From the savings 
of a small business, he bought his wife for six hundred dollars, so 
that he stood to her in the relation of proprietor as well as husband, 
and his children were his slaves. Their only surviving child, when 
the Union troops arrived, was an intelligent girl eleven years old, 
who had been sent to school and had been received into the Catholic 
church. The father falling into misfortune owing- to the troubled 
times, in an evil hour mortgaged his daughter to his creditors, 
trusting to be able to redeem her in time to prevent her from being 
sold. The continuance of the war frustrated his plans ; the mortgage 
was foreclosed ; the child was sold at auction by the sheriff. In 
this sad extremity, he came before the provost court, and asked the 
restoration of his daughter. The case was ably argued by counsel. 
Colonel Kinsman, who was then filling the place of provost judge, 
decided that the girl was free, and gave her back to her parents. 
This decision was manifestly contrary to the laws of Louisiana, 
which would have doomed the girl to slavery. But Colonel Kins- 
man agreed with his predecessor, Major Bell, that when Louisiana 
went out of the Union she took her black laws with her. 

This is the mere outline of the story, which, fully related, would 
furnish the material for an Uncle Tom novel. Readers can under- 
stand it who have imagination enough to apply the situation to a 
favorite child, sister, niece, or ward of their own. 

Specimen Letter from a Slave to the Commandmg 
, General. 

" New Oeleans, June 18th, 1862. 
" Gbkeral Butler — Dear Sir : — 

I am reputed the natural son of one Thomas Thornhill, an aris- 



REPRESENTATIVE NEGRO ANECDOTES. 



533 



tocratic cotton merchant of this city, an officer in the rebel army, 
recently killed in one of the battles in Virginia. 

" My mother, my sister and myself are claimed as slaves by 
George Hawthorne, of this city, who has been a soldier n the rebe. 
array from its first organization, and is now in that army near 
Richmond. Our wages are used for his benefit. 

" He has given a power of attorney to one J. A. Banorres, his 
mistress in this city, to sell, hire, or dispose of us at her pleasure. 
We were not slaves for life, but to serve his lifetime by the will of 
his mother. 

" Will your honor save us from perpetual slavery ? 
" Respectfully, 

" Your humble servant, 

" VlRGINIUS THORNHILL." 

Cases of this kind were uniformly investigated. If the slave es- 
tablished his legal right to freedom, he was declared free. 

General Butler on the Fugitive Slave Question, 

Visitor. — " General, I wish you would give me an order to search 
for my negro." 

" Have you lost your horse ?" 
" No, sir." 

" Have you lost your mule ?" 
" No, sir." 

" Well, sir, if you had lost your horse or your mule, would you 
come and ask me to neglect my duty to the government, for the 
purpose of assisting you to catch them ?" 

" Of course not." 

" Then why should you expect me to employ myself in hunting 
after any other article of your property ?" [Mvit Visitor. 

Two Masters. „ 

" The first negro met by our soldiers at Baton Rouge was an old 
house servant. The picket brought down his gun, and stopped old 
Uncle Ned short in his effort to retreat. Then there followed this 
conversation, the negro standing, meantime, with his eyes sticking 



534 



REPRESENTATIVE NEGRO ANECDOTES. 



out of his head, and his face on a broad grin of astonishment and 

fear : 

" Soldier. — Where's your master?" 

" Uncle Ned. — Dun no, master." 

" Soldier. — Tell me where is your master ?" 

" Uncle JVed. — 'Pon my soul, dun no, master." 

" Soldier — (affecting great sternness)-. — Look here, if you don't 
tell me where your master is, I'll blow your brains out !" 

" Uncle Ned — (getting more than ever scared). — By golly, dis 
nigger is in a bad fix. II he tells whar Massa Charles Cassell is, 
Massa Charles, if he catch em, will whip dis nigger to def ; if he 
don't tell, den you soger will blow his brains out. Dis nigger is in 
a bad fix, sartin."* 

Convicts 1 Children. 

In the state prison at Baton Rouge were found several children 
born in prison of female colored convicts. By the laws of Louisi- 
ana, these children were the property of the state, doomed to be 
sold as slaves to the highest bidder. The new superintendent, 
Moses Bates, applied to the general for orders with regard to them. 
" I certainly can not sanction," wrote General Butler, " any laws 
of the state of Louisiana, which enslaved any children of female 
convicts, born in the state prison. Their place of birth is certainly 
not their fault. You are, therefore, to take such care of them as 
would be done with other destitute children. If these children 
were born of female convict slaves, possibly the master might have 
some claim, but I do not see how the state can have any." 

An Anecdote which the late Rioters and their friends 
will regard as a Good Joke. 

General Butler had a dandy regiment in New Orleans — one a 
little nicer in uniform and personal habits than any other ; and so 
ably commanded, that it had not lost a man by disease since leav- 
ing New England. One day, the colonel of this fine regiment came 
to head-quarters, wearing the expression of a man who had some 



* Correspondence of the JSfew York Times. 



EEPEE SENT ATI VE NEGRO ANECDOTES. 535 

thing exceedingly pleasant to communicate. It was just before the 
fourth of July. 

" General," said he, " two young ladies have been to me, — beauti- 
ful girls, — who say they have made a set of colors for the regiment, 
which they wish to present on the fourth of July." 

" But is their father willing ?" asked the general, well knowing 
what it must cost two young ladies of New Orleans, at that early 
time, to range themselves so conspicuously on the side of the 
Union. 

" Oh, yes," replied the colonel ; " their father gave them the 
money, and will attend at the ceremony. But have you any ob- 
jection ?" 

" Not the least, if their father is willing." 

" Will you ride out and review the regiment on the occasion ?" 
" With pleasure." 

So, in the cool twilight of the evening of the fourth, the general, 
in his best uniform, with chapeau and feathers, worn then for the 
first time in New Orleans, reviewed the regiment, amid a concourse 
of spectators. One of the young ladies made a pretty presentation, 
to which the gallant colonel handsomely replied. The general 
made a brief address. It was a gay and joyful scene : everything 
passed off with the highest eclat, and was chronicled with all the 
due editorial flourish in the Delta. 

Two days after, the young ladies addressed a note to the regi- 
ment, of which the following is a copy : 

" New Oeleans, July 5, 1862. 

"Gentlemen: — We congratulate and thank you all for the manner in 
which you have received our flag. We did not expect such a reception. 
We offered the flag to you as a gift from our hearts, as a reward to your 
noble conduct. Be assured, gentlemen, that that day will be always pres- 
ent in our minds, and that we will never forget that we gave it to the 
bravest of the brave ; but if ever danger threatens your heads, rally under 
that banner, call again your courage to defend it, as you have promised, and 
remember that those from whom you received it will help you by their 
prayers to win the palms of victory and triumph over your enemies. 

" We tender our thanks to General Butler for lending his presence to the 
occasion, and for his courtesies to us. May he continue his noble work, 
and ere long may we behold the Union victorious over his foes and reunited 
throughout our great and glorious country. Very respectfully. 1 ' 



536 



REPRESENTATIVE NEGRO ANECDOTES. 



A few clays later, an officer of the regiment came into the office 
of the commanding general, his countenance not clad in smiles. He 
looked like a man who had seen a ghost, or like one who had sud- 
denly heard of some entirely crushing calamity. 

" General," he gasped, " we have been sold. They were ne- 
groes !" 

" What ! Those lovely blondes, with blue eyes, and light hair ? 

Impossible !" 

" General, it's as true as there's a heaven above us. The whole 
town is laughing at us." 

"Well," said the general, "there's no harm done. Say nothing 
about it. I suppose we must keep it out of the papers, and hush it 
up as well as we can." 

They did not quite succeed in keeping it out of the papers, for 
one of the " foreign neutrals " of the city sent an account of the 
affair to the Gourrier des Mats TJnis y in New York, with the inevi- 
table French decorations. 

Comment suppressed. 

The story of Jeff, now a LoweU Bcvrber. 

A young lawyer of New Orleans came one day to head-quarters 
with a petition. 

" General," said he, " you have a favorite body-servant of mine, 
a mulatto man, named Jeff. One of your surgeons has him at the 
hospital. I am used to the fellow — he is a great favorite — had him 
ten years — can't do without him. Let me have him, and I will give 
you another man as good for your purpose as he is." 

The general referred him to Surgeon Smith, who had the man. 
If the surgeon was willing, and Jeff was willing,' the general had 
no objection. With a note to this effect from the general to the 
surgeon, the lawyer departed. 

Soon after, surgeon Smith came hurrying to head-quarters with 
a very different version of the story. Jeff, he said, was no body- 
servant, but a barber, who had hired his time from his master at 
forty dollars a month. *' He shaved me in his shop when we land- 
ed," added the doctor. " Every one in New Orleans knows him 
as a barber here, established for many years. His master only 
wants his forty dollars a month." 



REPRESENTATIVE NEGRO ANECDOTES. 



537 



These facts being established, General Butler expressed himself 
upon the subject to the owner of this barber, in what Mr. Dickens 
styles " the English language." Jeff remained at the hospital. 

A few days after, word was brought to the general, that Jeff, 
bearing free papers as a servant of the United States, had been 
seized in the streets, had been overpowered after a desperate fight, 
thrust into a carriage, and driven off to Foster's slave pen. 

" Bring Foster here." 

Foster was brought. He said that Jeff had remained at his pen 
only for an hour, and had then been carried off, he knew not 
where. The general notified him that the business of slave-pen 
keeping was obsolete in New Orleans, and warned him against at- 
tempting to continue it. The detective force was ordered to pro- 
duce Jeff at their very earliest convenience. No trace of him, 
however, could be discovered that day, nor during the night. 

The next morning, the captain of a gun-boat, stationed below 
the city, reported that a man had swam off to his vessel at day- 
break, in irons, calling himself Jeff, who said that he has been kid- 
napped in New Orleans, and taken to a plantation, where a black- 
smith had ironed him, and he had been chained in a garret all 
night, from which he had escaped by the aid of a file. Jeff him- 
self soon arrived, and related his adventures. It was his master, 
he said, who had seized, carried off, and chained him. 

For this offense the master was tried and sentenced to two 
years in the parish prison. 

After these events, Jeff was made much of by the officers of the 
hospital ; was trusted, at length, with the keys of the store-closets ; 
which trust he variously abused, often getting drunk upon the 
hospital liquors. Hence, after many reformations and relapses, 
Jeff found himself an inmate of the same parish prison in which 
his master was confined. 

It now occurred to the legal mind of the master that Jeff, be- 
ing a prisoner, could no longer be considered under the protection 
or in the service of the United States. He ventured, therefore, to 
sell his barber. When Jeff's term of imprisonment had expired, 
the general received information that he had vanished again, and 
could nowhere be found. He sent for the master. 

" Take your choice," said the general : " Produce Jeff, or live 
on bread and water till you do." 



538 



EEPEESEOTATIVE NEGEO ANECDOTES. 



Bread and water did not agree with the luxurious constitution 
of a man accustomed to live upon the wages of a barber. Finding 
himself growing thin upon that austere diet, he soon gave the in- 
formation desired, and Jeff was again restored to freedom. The 
purchaser was condemned to thirty days' imprisonment for buying 
a free man. 

Jeff, being then removed from temptation, behaved so well that 
General Butler took him into his own service ; in which he was at 
the time of the general's return home. Knowing well what would 
befall Jeff if he were left to the tender mercies of his master, 
he brought him to the North, where he is established in his old 
occupation. 



The patriotic ex-hunkers who edited the loyal Delta, upon look- 
ing over the old books of the concern, found this entry in one of 
them : 

" Whipping Wade, two dollars." Wade was the respectable 
porter of the establishment. 



Soon after the colored regiments had been raised, a provost 
officer, who augured the worst results from the arming of ne- 
groes, came to head-quarters with a story that was strongly con- 
firmatory of his forebodings. One of the negro soldiers, he said, 
had killed his former master with a bayonet. 

" I'm afraid it will never do, general," said he, " this arming of 
the blacks. I have always said so, and here is the proof of it." 

Soon after, came a long letter from the British consul, detailing 
the case ; Mr. Montgomery, the wounded man, being a British 
subject. " It appears," wrote Mr. Coppell, " that the colored man, 
John Andrew, a dark mulatto, twenty-two years of age, formerly 
owned by Mrs. Montgomery, was in the city on Saturday and Sun- 
day last on furlough ; that he called twice at Mr. Montgomery's 
house ; that when there the second time, Montgomery saw him, and 
told him not to come there again ; whereupon, Andrew drew the 
bayonet at his side, rushed upon Mr. Montgomery, and stabbed 



Curious 




A colored Soldier in trouble. 



REPRESENTATIVE NEGRO ANECDOTES. 



539 



him in the left breast, at the same time using abusive and obscene 
language, and threatening that if Montgomery approached him he 
would kill him. Fortunately, the wound is not a serious one, and, 
soon after the occurrence, Mr. Montgomery was able to take steps 
to have Andrew arrested. Colonel French kindly allowed an 
officer to accompany Mr. Montgomery to the Opelousas railroad 
station this morning, but he was unable to find Andrew in the 
crowd. Unable to give definite information of the company or 
regiment to which John Andrew belongs, beyond that already 
stated, and that on the 13th ult. he dated an insulting letter to 
Mrs. Montgomery from Lafourche Crossing, I feel convinced that 
you will detrn the crime one that will call forth such exertions as 
will lead to his speedy arrest and punishment." 

The case looked black enough for poor John Andrew. Alas ! 
for him, if such a complaint had been entered against him in the 
good old days when a dark mulatto had no rights which an English- 
man of any complexion was bound to respect. 

John Andrew was summoned to head-quarters. He came, accom- 
panied by his captain, who gave him the highest character. Such 
had been the excellent conduct of the man since he had enlisted, 
and such was his capacity and intelligence, that though he could 
not read, he had been made a corporal. Mr. Montgomery was 
present, and told his story. Mr. Coppell was there to support his 
countryman. 

" Now, Andrew," said the general, " state exactly what occur- 
red. Tell me the truth, and all the truth." 

" I will, general," said he. " I went to the camp and joined the 
regiment. When I had been away two weeks, I came back to see 
my sister, who is cook in master's house. I saw master as I passed, 
sitting at the front door. As I was talking with my sister at the 
back gate, I heard the front door slam, and thinking master was 
coming, and not wishing to get my sister into trouble, I walked 
away. I heard him calling me, but I kept on, as though I had not 
heard him. I walked on," said Andrew with flashing eyes, and the 
mien of a prince, " because no man has a right to stop a United 
States soldier, except his officer. 6 Stop, or I'll blow your brains 
out,' said master. I turned, and saw that he had a revolver aimed 
at me. I drew my bayonet, and made one pass at him. He then 
turned and went into the house, and I walked away." 
93* 



540 



REPRESENTATIVE NEGRO ANECDOTES. 



This was Andrew's story. 

" Now, Mr. Montgomery," said the general, " tell us precisely 
what part of the man's story is not true." 

" Well," said he, " I was sitting at my front door, reading the 
paper, and heard Andrew talking to my cook. I took a pistol to 
drive him away." 

" But why take a pistol, and why drive him away ?" asked the 
general. "As a British subject you can hold no slave." 

" I did not want him there," said this lying coward, " talking 
vith my cook. He had sent my wife an insulting letter." 

" What was the letter ? Produce it." 

The letter, which Andrew had got one of his comrades to write 
Or him, proved to be one of the most friendly and respectful char- 
acter. It began thus : " Dear Mistress : I take my pen in hand to 
let you know that I am well, and hope you are the same. I was 
sorry to part from you," etc., etc. There was not a word in it 
which was not respectful or affectionate. 

Witnesses of the affray confirmed the truth of Andrew's story. 

" My judgment is," said the general to the consul, " that Andrew 
served him right. I see nothing to blame in his conduct, except 
that he did not strike hard enough ; and if your friend wishes any- 
thing more done in connection with this case, we'll try him on a 
charge of assault with intent to kill." 

Montgomery expressed no desire for farther proceedings, and the 
case was dismissed. Andrew returned to his regiment in triumph. 

Anecdote showing the Good Disposition of the Mnanci- 
pated Negroes, and the perfect safety of Immediate 
Abolition. 

Major Strong received from an oflicer commanding an expedi- 
tion, the following letter early in November : 

" In still farther confirmation of what I wrote you, in my dis- 
patch of this morning, relative to servile insurrection, I have the 
honor to inform you, that, on the plantation of Mr. David Pugh, a 
short distance above here, the negroes, who had returned under the 
terms fixed upon by Major-General Butler, without provocation or 
cause of any kind, refused, this morning, to work, and assaulted the 



REPRESENTATIVE NEGRO ANECDOTES. 



541 



overseer and Mr. Pugh, injuring them severely ; also a gentleman 
who came to the assistance of Mr. Pugh. Upon the plantation, 
also, of Mr. W. J. Miner, on the Terrebonne road, about sixteen 
miles from here, an outbreak has already occurred, and the entire 
community thereabout are in hourly expectation and terror of a 
general rising." 

Investigation ensued, which established the facts that follow : 
Senator Pugh's negroes, when the Union troops possessed the 
Lafourche country, were among those who came pouring into the 
Union camp, and who had returned to their work under a promise 
of protection in all their rights, and a fair share of the proceeds of 
their labor. One morning, when the negroes were assembled as 
usual, to go to the field, one of them left the line and ran toward 
his cabin. 

" Come back," shouted the overseer, in the old, brutal tone of 
command. 

" I'm only going after my coat," said the man. 
He went to his cabin, got his coat, and rejoined the gang before 
it started. 

The next morning, when the negroes were again drawn up, before 
going to their work, Pugh himself came on the ground, when the 
overseer said to him, pointing out the negro : 

" There's the damned rascal who was impudent to me yesterday 
morning." 

Pugh, forgetting that old things had passed away in Lafourche, 
began to belabor the negro over the head with his walking stick. 
The negro, who had a better memory, resisted, and defended him- 
self. The overseer came to the assistance of his employer. The 
other negroes joined in the fray, and, in a very few seconds, the 
two white men found themselves flat on the ground, each held down 
by half a dozen stout negroes. 

What any other gang of laboring men, except negroes, would 
have done next in such circumstances, we all know; the savage 
Pugh and his lying overseer would have received the punishment 
due to their insolence and brutality. These negroes, unmoved by 
the memory of a thousand wrongs, carefully bound the two pros- 
trate men, hand and foot ; made two litters ; placed them gently 
upon the litters ; and, conveying them in silence to the nearest 
Union camp, laid them down before the tent of the commanding 



542 



KEPRESENTATIVE NEGRO ANECDOTES. 



officer, and waited patiently there, cap in hand, to relate the occur- 
rences which justified their novel proceedings. The most rigorous 
examination of both parties only proved that the negroes had told 
their story with religious exactness. The general justified and ap- 
plauded the course they had taken, and gave them the protection 
needed in the circumstances. 

Forbearance less meritorious than that shown by these poor 
negroes has been styled sublime, and no one has questioned the 
propriety of the epithet, 

The hind of man that could once be elected a Judge in 
New Orleans. 

John G. Cocks is his name — Cocks, John G. He is the indi- 
vidual, to whom allusion has before been made in these pages, 
whose property General Butler seized in behalf of Major Anderson. 
At the beginning of the rebellion this Cocks, Judge Cocks, pub- 
lished in the New Orleans Picayune an impudent letter to Major 
Anderson. 

A PROPOSITION TO MAJOR ANDERSON. 

" New Orleans, May 16, 1861. 
''Major Robt. Anderson, late of Fort Sumter, S. C. : 

" Sir :— You hold my three notes for $4,500 each, with about $1,000 
accumulated interest, all due in the month of March, 1862, which notes 
were given in part payment of twenty-nine negroes, purchased of you in 
March, 1860. As I consider fair play a jewel, I take this method to notify 
you that I will not pay these notes ; but, as I neither seek nor wish an 
advantage, I desire that you return me the notes and the money paid you, 
and the negroes shall be subject to your order, which you will find much 
improved by kind treatment since they came into my possession. 

"I feel justified in giving you, and the public, this notice, as I do not 
consider it fair play that I should be held to pay for the very property you 
so opportunely dispossessed yourself of, and now seek to destroy both their 
value and usefulness to me. I ask no more than to cancel the sale, restore 
to you your property, and let each assume his original position ; then your 
present efforts may be considered less selfish, because at your expense, and 
not mine. 

"John G. Cocks." 

General Butler, in pursuance of his system of redressing the 
wrongs of Union men, seized the large estates of Judge Cocks. 



REPRESENTATIVE NEGRO ANECDOTES. 



543 



and held them for the future liquidation of Major Anderson's 
claim. Cocks justly thinking that New Orleans, under the rule of 
General Butler, was no fit place for him to reside in, vanished soon 
after into the congenial shades of Secessia. 

A few days after his departure, a young woman sought an inter- 
view with Mrs. Butler, to whom many women came at that time, 
to relate their wrongs. So many women, indeed, resorted to he. 
for that purpose, that at length it was found necessary to close that 
door to the commanding general's attention. The young woman 
who came to her on this occasion was a perfect blonde, her hair of 
a light shade of brown, her eyes " a clear, honest gray," her com- 
plexion remarkably pure and delicate, her bearing modest and re- 
fined, her language that of an educated woman. It has been often 
remarked that the women of the South, who have been made the 
victims of a master's brutal lust, escape moral contamination. 
Their souls remain chaste. This woman, so fair to look upon, so 
engaging in her demeanor, so refined in her address, was a slave, 
the slave of Judge Cocks. She told her incredible story — incredi- 
ble until superabundant testimony compelled the most incredulous 
to believe. 

She said that Judge Cocks was her father as well as her master. 
At an early age she had been sent to school at New York, the 
school of the Mechanics' Institute, in Broadway. When she was 
fifteen years of age, her father came to New York, took her from 
school to his hotel, and compelled her to live with him as his mis- 
tress. She became the mother of a child, of whom her master was 
father and grandfather. 

" I am now twenty-one," said she, " and I am the mother of a 
boy five years old, who is my father's son." 

Cocks took her home with him to New Orleans, where he con- 
tinued to live with her for awhile ; then ordered her to marry a 
favorite protege. She refused. He had her horsewhipped in 
the streets, and continued a systematic torture till she consented. 
When she had been married for some time, the protege (a man so 
nearly white, that he was employed as chief clerk in a wholesale 
house) discovered the shameless cheat that had been put upon him, 
and abandoned his wife. Then the master took her again to his 
incestuous bed, and gave her a deed of manumission, which he 
afterward took from her and destroyed. 



544 REPRESENTATIVE NEGRO ANECDOTES. 

" And now," she added, " he has gone off, and left me and my 
children without any means of support." 

Mrs. Butler, amazed and confounded at this tale of horror, pro- 
cured her an interview with the general, to whom the story was 
repeated. He spoke kindly to her, but told her frankly that he 
could not believe her story. 

" It is too much," said he, " to believe on the testimony of one 
witness. Does any one else know of these things ?" 

"Yes," she replied : "everybody in New Orleans knows them." 

" I will have the case investigated," said the general. " Come 
again in three days." 

General Shepley undertook the investigation. He found that 
the woman's story was as true as it was notorious. The facts were 
completely substantiated. General Butler gave her her freedom, 
and assigned her an allowance from her father's estate ; and, some 
time after, Captain Puffer, during his short tenure of power as 
deputy provost-marshal, gave her one of the best of her father's 
houses to live in, by letting apartments in which she added to her 
income. 

It is now a year since the outline of this story was first published 
to the world, but no attempt has been made, from any quarter, to 
controvert any part of it. 

Story of an old Gentleman who thought a Man could 
do what he liked with his own Servant. 

A lieutenant searched a certain house in New Orleans, in which 
confederate arms were reported to be concealed. Arms and tents 
were found stowed in the garret, which were removed to that 
grand repository of contraband articles, the Custom-House. A gen- 
tleman of venerable aspect, with long white hair and a form bent 
with premature old age, was the occupant of the house from which 
the arms and tents were taken. 

In the twilight of an evening soon after the search, the most 
fearful screams were heard proceeding from the yard of the house, 
as if a human being was suffering there the utmost that a mortal 
can endure of agony. A sentinel, who was pacing his beat near 
by, ran into the yard, where he beheld a hideous spectacle. A 
young mulatto girl was stretched upon the ground on her face, her 



REPRESENTATIVE NEGRO ANECDOTES. 



545 



feet tied to a stake, her hands held by a black man, her back un- 
covered, from neck to heels. The venerable old gentleman with 
the flowing white hair was seated in an arm-chair by the side of 
the girl, at a distance convenient for his purpose. He held in his 
hand a powerful horse- whip, with which he was lashing the delicate 
and sensitive flesh of the young girl. Her back was covered with 
blood. Every stroke of the infernal instrument of torture tore up 
her flesh in long dark ridges. The soldier, aghast at the sight, 
rushed to the guard-house, and reported what he had seen to his 
sergeant, and the sergeant ran to head-quarters and told the gen- 
eral. General Butler sent him flying back to stop the old mis- 
creant, and ordered him to bring the torturer and his victim to 
head-quarters the next morning. 

The sergeant hurried back and rescued the girl from the lash. 

About nine the same evening, the sergeant came again to head- 
quarters, breathless, reporting that they were torturing the girl 
again, as the most heart-rending shrieks were heard coming from 
an upper room of the house. General Butler ordered him to arrest 
all the inmates of the house, and keep them in the guard-house all 
night, and bring them before him in the morning. On returning 
to the house, the sergeant found that the second outcry was caused 
by washing the lacerated back of the poor gjrl with strong brine. 
They do this at the South on the pretense that it causes the 
wounds of the lash to heal more quickly and with less pain. The 
real object is to make them heal without such scars as would 
lessen the value of the slave at the auction block. It is said really 
to have that effect ; and the operation has the farther charm of be- 
ing more exquisitely painful than the punishment itself ; since the 
flooding of the back with brine revives the dull sensitiveness of the 
nerves, calls back the dead agony to life, renews, in one instant, 
the anguish of each several stroke, and that anguish intensified. 
The whole extent of the sufferer's back is one biting, burning, 
piercing, maddening pain. 

In the morning, the hoary wretch and his tortured slave were 
brought to the general's office. The upper part of her dress was 
opened. It was a hideous and horrible sight. 

" What have you to say, sir ?" said General Butler to the old man. 

He said the girl had given information respecting the arms and 
tents in his garret, and she was going to run away. 



546 



REPRESENTATIVE NEGRO ANECDOTES. 



" It is false, sir," said the general, " so far as the information is 
concerned. We had our information from another source. What 
was the cause of the second outcry ?" 

The old man said he did not know. The general asked the girl. 
She said it was master washing her with brine. 

" Is this so ?" asked the general. 

" Yes." 

" You damned old rascal ! What could tempt you to treat a 
human being so ?" 

" She is my servant, and I suppose I may do what I like with 
her. I washed her to relieve her from pain." 

" To relieve her ? Well, sir, I shall commit you to Fort Jack 
son." 

" General, I am a native of South Carolina ; my health is infirm. 
It will kiU me." 

" I can't help that. And see that you behave well, or you shall 
have precisely the same punishment that you have given this poor 
girl, and to relieve your pain, you shall be washed down with 
brine." 

The old native of South Carolina went to Fort Jackson, where, I 
am happy to _be able to state, he died in a month. General Butler 
gave the girl her freedom, and assigned her a sum of money suffi- 
cient to set her up in some little business, such as colored girls 
carry on in New Orleans. 

A " respectable Merchant" and his Slave Daughter, 

One Sunda/ morning, while General Butler was seated at the 
breakfast table, Major Strong, a gentleman who was not given to 
undue emotion, rushed into the room, pale with rage and horror. 

" General," he exclaimed, " there is the most damnable thing out 
here !" 

The general followed him to the office. There he found the statf 
assembled, standing round a woman, gazing upon her with flash- 
ing eyes, their countenances betraying mingled pity and fury. 
The servants of the house were crowding about the doors of the 
room. The woman who was the object of so much attention, was 
nearly white, aged about twenty-seven. Her face showed, at the 
first glance, that she was one of those unfortunate creatures whom 



REPRESENTATIVE NEGRO ANECDOTES. 



547 



some savages regard with a kind of religious awe, and whom civ- 
ilized beings are accustomed to consider peculiarly entitled to ten- 
derness and forbearance. She was simple-minded. Not absolutely 
an idiot, but imbecile, vacant, half silly. 

" Look here, General," said Major Strong, as he opened the dress 
of this poor creature. 

Her back was cut to pieces with the infernal cowhide. It was 
all black and red — red where the infernal instrument of torture had 
broken the skin, black where it had not. To convey an idea of its 
appearance, General Strong used to say that it resembled a very 
rare beefsteak, with the black marks of the gridiron across it. 

No one ever saw General Butler so profoundly moved as he was 
while gazing upon this pitiable spectacle. 

" Who did this ?" he asked the girl. 

" Master," she replied. 

" "Who is your master ?" 

" Mr. Landry." 

Landry was a respectable merchant living near head-quarters, not 
unknown to the members of the staff. 

" What did he do it for ?" asked the general. 

"I went out after the clothes from the wash," said she, "and I 
stayed out late. When I came home, master kicked me and said he 
would teach me to run away." 

" Orderly, go to Landry's house and bring him before me." 

In a few minutes, Landry entered the office — a spare, tall, gentle- 
manlike person of fifty-five. 

"Mr. Landry," said the general, "this is infamous. The girl is 
evidently simple. It is the awfulest spectacle I ever beheld in my 
life." 

At this moment Major Strong whispered in the general's ear a 
piece of information which caused him to compare the faces of the 
master and the slave. The resemblance between them was striking. 

" Is this woman your daughter ?" asked the general. 

" There are reports to that effect," said Landry. 

The insolent nonchalance of the man, as he replied to the last 
question, so inflamed the rage of all who witnessed it, that it need- 
ed but a wink from the general to set a dozen infuriated men at his 
throat. The general merely said, 

" I am answered, sir." 



548 



REPRESENTATIVE NEGRO ANECDOTES. 



The general, for once, seemed deprived of his power to judge 
with promptness. " He remained for some time," says an eye- 
witness, " apparently lost in abstraction. I shall never forget the 
singular expression on his face. 

" I had been accustomed to see him in a storm of passion at 
any instance of oppression or flagrant injustice; but on this 
occasion he was too deeply affected to obtain relief in the usual 
way. 

"His whole air was one of dejection, almost listlessness ; his in- 
dignation too intense, and his anger too stern, to find expression 
even in his countenance. 

" Never have I seen that peculiar look but on three or four occa- 
sions similar to the one I am narrating, when I knew he was pon- 
dering upon the baleful curse that had cast its withering blight 
upon all around, until the manhood and humanity were crushed out 
of the people, and outrages such as the above were looked upon 
with complacency, and the perpetrators treated as respected and 
worthy citizens, — and that he was realizing the great truth, that, 
however man might endeavor to guide this war to the advantage 
of a favorite idea or sagacious policy, the Almighty was directing 
it surely and steadily for the purification of our country from this 
greatest of national sins. 

" After sitting in the mood which I have described, the general 
again turned to the prisoner, and said, in a quiet, subdued tone of 
voice : 

" ' Mr. Landry, I dare not trust myself to decide to-day what pun- 
ishment would be meet for your offense, for I am in that state of 
mind that I fear I might exceed the strict demands of justice. I 
shall, therefore, place you under guard for the present, until I con- 
clude upon your sentence.' "* 

The next mornings came troops of Landry's friends to tell the 
general what an honorable, what a "high-toned," what an amiable 
gentleman Mr. Landry was, and how highly he was respected by 
all who knew him. They said that he had had his losses ; the war 
had half ruined him ; his friends had observed that he had been 
irritable of late, poor man ; and no doubt, he had struck his daugh- 
ter harder than he intendeds His wife and his other children came 



* Atlantic Monthly, July, 1868. 



REPRESENTATIVE NEGRO ANECDOTES. 



549 



to plead for him. A legal gentleman appeared, also, to do what 
was possible for him in the way of argument. 

General Butler decided the case thus : Landry should give his 
daughter her freedom, and settle upon her a thousand dollars. 

Being in mortal terror of Fort Jackson, he gladly complied with 
these terms. The poor girl went forth that day a free woman, and 
a trustee was appointed to administer her little fortune and see that 
no farther harm befell her. 

It was a light penalty for such a crime. I wish the general had ; 
treated the case d la Wellington — rung for three poles and a rope, i^^ Jb-A. 
and had the wretch hanged, that Sunday morning, in the nearest 
public square. God and man would have applauded the deed, and 
there would have been no more woman-whipping in New Orleans 
while the flag of the United States floated over the Custom-House. 

I close this chapter of horrors. Each of these anecdotes illus- 
trates one phase of the accursed thing, and all of them tend to 
show what has been already remarked, that the worst consequen- 
ces of slavery fall upon the white race. It is better to be murdered 
than to be a murderer. It is better to be the victim of cruelty than 
to be capable of inflicting it. Mrs. Kemble judges rightly, when 
she says, in her recent noble and well-timed work, that it were far 
preferable to be a slave upon a Georgian rice plantation than to be 
the lord of one, with all that weight of crime upon the soul which ' 
slavery necessitates, and to become so completely depraved as to 
be able to contemplate so much suffering and iniquity with stolid 
indifference. 

These scenes sank deeply into the hunker mind. General But- 
ler, as he himself remarks, is not a man of the cast of character 
which we call humanitarian. A person of very great executive 
force never is, for nature does not bestow all her good gifts upon 
any individual. To his own circle of friends he would be more 
than generous ; he makes their cause his own ; he is faithful to 
them unto death, and after death. He was not satisfied to get for 
Major Strong a commission as brigadier-general, nor satisfied to 
come two hundred miles to attend his funeral ; but he took care of 
his fame also, writing with hii own hand the history of his career 
*br the press, and correcting errors and supplying omissions in the 
eulogies penned by others. Still, he is not, in the modern sense of 



550 



REPRESENTATIVE NEGRO ANECDOTES. 



St 



the term, a '' philanthropist." He loves men more than he loves 
man. But a woman's bleeding back, the master's brutal insensi- 
bility, the absolute destruction in the character of slave-owners of 
all that redeems human nature, such as sense of truth, pity for the 
helpless, regard for the sanctities of domestic life ; the nighty infe- 
riority of their minds, their stupid improvidence, their incurable 
wrong-headedness and wrong-heartedness, .their childish vanity and 
shameful ignorance, their boastful emptiness and contempt for all 
people and nations more enlightened than themselves ; these things 
appealed to him, these things he marked and inwardly digested. 
Impatient as he had previously been at the slow progiess of the 
war, he now became more reconciled to it, because he saw that 
every month of its continuance made the doom of slavery more 
certain and more speedy. He was now perfectly aware that the 
United States could never realize General Washington's modest 
aspiration, that it might become " a respectable nation,'' much less 
a great and glorious one, nor even a nation homogeneous enough to 
be truly powerful, until slavery had ceased to exist in every part 
of it. 

Those who lived on intimate relations with the general, remarked 
his growing abhorrence of slavery. During the first weeks of the 
occupation of the city, he was occasionally capable, in the hurry of 
indorsing a peck of letters, of spelling negro with two g's. Xot so 
in the later months. Xot so when he had seen the torn and bleed 
ing and blackened backs of fair and delicate women. Xot so when 
he had reviewed his noble colored regiments. Not so when he 
had learned that the negroes of the South were among the heaven- 
destined means of restoring the integrity, the power, and the splen- 
dor of his country. Xot so when he had learned how the oppres- 
sion of the negroes had extinguished in the white race almost every 
trait of character which redeems and sanctifies human nature. 
- " God Almighty himself is doing it," he would say, when talking 
nn this subject. " Xo man's hand can stay it. It is no other than 
the omnipotent God who has taken this mode of destroying slavery. 
v We are but the instruments in his hands. We could not prevent 
it if we would. And let us strive as we might, the judicial blind- 
ness of the rebels would do the work of God without our aid, and 
in spite of all our endeavors against it." 

Amen ! 



MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



551 



CHAPTER XXX. 

MILITARY OPERATIONS. 

Gjeneral McClellan's orders to the commander of the depart- 
ment of the gulf directed him, first, and before all other objects, 
to hold New Orleans. To that everything was to be sacrificed. 
Xext, he was to seize and hold all the approaches to the city, 
y bcve and below, on the east and on the west, which included the 
seizure of all the railroads and railroad property in the vicinity. 
He was farther directed to co-operate with the navy in an attack 
upon Mobile, and, if possible, to threaten Pensacola and Galveston. 
General McClellan added that it was the design of the government 
to send re-enforcements sufficient for the accomplishment of all these 
purposes, as well as more detailed instructions. Circumstances 
prevented the sending of re-enforcements, as we have seen. Nor 
were particular orders respecting military movements forwarded, 
except that the attack upon Mobile should be postponed until the 
completion of some of the monitors. Whatever General Butler 
accomplished in his department was done by the force he brought 
with him, and the regiments which he raised in New Orleans. 

All the objects of the expedition named in the orders of the com- 
mander-in-chief were accomplished except two. One of these was 
the reduction of Mobile, which was countermanded. The other 
was the opening of the Mississippi, above Baton Rouge, which 
was attempted, but found impossible without a very large increase 
of force. Let us dispose of that matter first. 

Attempt to Open the Mississippi. 

The troops were no sooner posted around the city than General 
Butler began to prepare an expedition to ascend the river, to occu- 
py Baton Rouge, and reconnoiter Vicksburg, which was then 
looming up as the most formidable obstacle which the enemy had 
yet interposed to the free navigation of the Mississippi. Port Hud- 
son had not then been fortified. Later in the year General Butler 
had the pain and mortification of seeing the batteries of Port Hud- 
son rising and strengthening daily, he powerless to prevent it He 



552 MILITARY OPERATIONS. 

gave early warning respecting this new position to the govern- 
ment. Two monitors and five thousand men, he said, could take 
the place in October, 1862, which a whole fleet and a large army 
might not be able to reduce six months later. The requisite force 
could not be sent in time, and it cost many thousands of precious 
lives to invest it in the summer of 1863. The peninsular lossea 
paralyzed the powers of the government at the points most remote 
from the scene of those tremendous disasters, and nowhere waa 
their baleful influence more manifest than in the southwest. 

To procure river steamboats for transporting the troops was the 
first difficulty. The rebels had wisely burned all the steamboats 
at the levee of the city, except one or two small ones. It was 
known, however, that many boats had been hidden away in the 
bayous of the Delta ; and hence the steamboat hunting to which 
allusion has before been made. Parties of troops went peering and 
floundering through the wooded swamps of the adjacent country 
in search of these hidden vessels. The gun-boats of the navy 
cruised for the same purpose along the borders of the lakes, and 
pushed up the tortuous streams that empty into them. Several 
steamers were obtained in this way, which the unwilling or timid 
mechanics of New Orleans were compelled to repair. 

The most noted of these steamboat hunts was one achieved by 
Colonel Kinsman, the general's volunteer aid, serving then without 
pay or rank. Certain information was obtained that two of the 
largest steamboats belonging to New Orleans had been taken across 
Lake Pontchartrain, and stowed away somewhere in one of its 
tributary rivers. The naval vessels had sought for them in vain for 
several days. It occurred to the Yankee intelligence of Colonel 
Kinsman that the boats must have been taken higher up one of 
those streams than a gun-boat could navigate, and that the way to 
find them was to penetrate the country northward for several miles, 
and then sweep around the lake from one river to another, near the 
head of possible steamboat navigation. He won from the general 
a reluctant consent to this perilous enterprise. A steamboat land- 
ed him and a hundred men on the southern shore of Lake Pontchar- 
train. They marched northward through a dense forest, for two 
or three days ; then turned to the east, exploring all the streams, 
aided only by the compass and an occasional friendly negro. No 
traces of steamboats were discovered. The heat was intense in 



MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



5f>3 



those dense and lofty woods, and the men were becoming ex- 
hausted. One day, when the troops were resting, Colonel Kinsman 
went alone on the line of march, and came at length to the Pearl 
river, a stream that looked capable of harboring a steamboat. The 
men were brought up, and the exploration began. 

At last they had caught the true scent. A steamboat of the 
largest size was discovered on the opposite side of the river, with- 
out a guard. A small boat floated alongside of her, and ere long a 
man appeared on deck. This was the critical moment; for the 
man could have applied the match, set the vessel on fire, and easily 
escaped into the forest. Colonel Kinsman took a musket from the 
hands of a soldier, and ordered the man to bring that small boat 
across the river. He obeyed. In ten minutes more Colonel Kins- 
man and half a dozen of his men were on board examining the prize. 
The boiler was empty; the "packing" of the engine was gone; 
parts of the machinery were displaced, and others were wanting. 
But, of course, among a hundred Yankees there is always at least 
one man who knows all about steam-engines. The needed man was 
there. Under his directions the troops worked with the energy of 
successful hunters ; the packing was supplied ; the machinery was 
put in order ; fuel was collected. The most laborious part of the 
preparations was the filling of the boiler by means of pails. Hour 
after hour the men dipped, and carried, and hoisted, wondering 
at the slow progress of the work. But in twelve hours after 
boarding the vessel the engineer announced that she was ready to 
move. 

Colonel Kinsman, meanwhile, with a small party, and an impressed 
but very willing negro guide, had been looking for the other steam- 
boat. A remark made by this negro, when he was out of his mas- 
ter's hearing, greatly amused the troops : 

"Master said you was whipped every time; but you corned 
learer and nearer, and here you be." 

The grinning exultation of the man, as he said these words, was 
in the highest degree comic. The troops were ready to drop with 
heat and fatigue, but they found strength to make the woods re- 
sound with laughter at this black man's epitome of the war. Colo- 
nel Kinsman found the second steamer, but she was far inferior to 
the first, and was so securely lodged, that he feared the alarm would 
call down upon him a rescuing party if he should attempt to bring 



554 



MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



away both. So he returned to the larger vessel, and all the troops 
slept on board without disturbance. 

The greatest difficulty remained to be overcome, to navigate so 
large a boat down a river so rapid, narrow and crooked as the 
Pearl. N<one of the party had ever commanded or steered a steam- 
boat ; none of them had ever seen the Pearl river before yesterday. 
But were they not Yankees ? Colonel Kinsman assumed the com- 
mand. The boat was cast off, and away she rushed down the swift 
stream. They had but about twenty miles to go, and it took them 
all day to accomplish the distance. The boat grounded oftener 
than once a mile ; sometimes both ends were fast at the same time ; 
sometimes she seemed involved in the mud and trees beyond ex- 
trication ; sometimes she was turned completely around and went 
stern foremost for a while. The yielding nature of the soil saved 
her from destruction ; and, toward the close of the day, she made 
her way to the lake, and hove in sight of a gun-boat which had 
been employed for a week in searching for this very vessel. The 
naval officers could scarcely hide their chagrin at being outdone on 
their own element by a party of raw recruits. Moreover, if they 
had taken the vessel, there would have been forty thousand dollars 
of prize-money to be distributed among them. 

Colonel Kinsman and his party were welcomed at New Orleans 
as men returned from the grave. General Butler renamed the 
boat the Kinsman. She did good service for many months, and 
met, at length, the fate of steamboats in Avar time ; she sank to the 
bottom of the river pierced by sixty cannon balls. 

A few steamers being thus obtained, General Williams and his 
brigade, convoyed by a naval force under Captain Farragut, went 
up the river to Baton Rouge, of which they took peaceable pos- 
session. Captain Farragut, General Williams and General Weitzel 
surveyed the bluffs upon which Vicksburg stands. They found 
the town too high to be reached by guns fired from the river, and 
too powerfully garrisoned and fortified to be carried by assault with 
(ess than ten thousand men. Army and navy were, therefore, 
obliged to confess, that with the forces then in the department, 
Vicksburg was an obstacle in the way of the free navigation of 
the river which could not be overcome. 

This opinion being communicated to General Butler, he devoted 
the spare hours of a week to the study of the position. Maps, 



MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



555 



plans, measurements, natives of the town, engineer officers, and 
even works on geology were duly examined. The conception of 
the celebrated cut-off was the result of his inquiries and cogita- 
tions. It was a truly ingenious and most plausible scheme. Such 
a canal cut across almost any other bend of the river would have 
answered the purpose intended. But nature had concealed under 
the soft surface of that particular piece of land, a bed of tough clay, 
which baffled the project of diverting the course of the river. It 
happened, also, that the force of the stream at that point tends to 
the opposite shore, and could not be persuaded to co-operate effect- 
ually with the labors of the canal-cutters. Consequently the 
Father of Waters kept to his ancient bed, and Vicksburg remained 
a river town. For a long time General Butler lived in hopes of 
sending Vicksburg a few miles into the interior, and opening the 
Mississippi to commerce ; but nature had taken her precautions, 
and he could not prevail. 



When the yellow fever season was approaching, the alarm 
among the officers of the army was such, that it amounted at times 
to something like panic. The general was overwhelmed with re- 
quests for leaves of absence ; and when it was found that these 
were only granted in extreme cases, the resigning fever broke out 
and raged with dangerous violence. The manner in which the 
general met this new difficulty, which threatened to deprive him 
of indispensable officers, was characteristic and effectual. Take one 
scene as a specimen of those which were daily enacted at head- 
quarters during the month of June. 

Enter, a bluff rosy lieutenant, the picture of robust health, bear- 
ing in his hand a doctor's certificate, which declared that the lieu- 
tenant could not live thirty days longer in such a climate as that 
of Louisiana. The general looked at the man in some amaze- 
ment 

"You see, General," said the lieutenant, " that the surgeon of 
my regiment says, I can't live thirty days in New Orleans." 

" Do you think so ?" asked the general, looking him steadily in 
the face. 

" Well, General," replied the officer, with a manifest abatement, 




24 



556 



MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



of confidence in his cause, "I shouldn't wonder if the surgeon is 
right." 

" I propose to try the experiment," said the general. U I think 
you'll live. But if I should prove wrong, I'll ask the surgeon's par- 
don. If he is wrong, he shall apologize to me." 

The officer laughed and retired. He enjoyed perfect health 
all the summer; with the additional felicity of much bantering 
on his unsuccessful attempt to deprive the department of a lieuten- 
ant. 

With regard to the resignations, General Butler, at once, took 
the ground, that to resign in such circumstances was precisely as 
infamous as to resign in presence of the enemy. The yellow fever 
was the enemy, and the only enemy that was really formidable to 
the troops stationed in and around the city. Nevertheless, a few 
resignations were promptly accepted ; but so accepted as to serve 
as a warning to other officers not to avail themselves of that mode 
of escape. On the letter of a surgeon, w T ho resigned for the alleged 
reason that his private affairs demanded his presence at home, the 
following words were written by the general : 

" This application will be forwarded to the secretary of war, with 
this indorsement : ' A surgeon who would make his private and 
domestic affairs an excuse for leaving his regiment, and exposing 
his fellow-citizens to the want of medical attendance at this season 
of the year — knowing that his place could not be supplied for 
months — deserves to be cashiered for cowardice or neglect of duty. 

— b. f. b: " 

This indorsement was inserted in the Delta forthwith. There 
were not many resignations afterward — none of surgeons. I notice, 
however, a few more of those terrible " indorsements." Here is 
another, which was written on the letter of an officer, who assigned 
as a reason for resigning, that he was " incompetent." 

" This officer has now been nine months in the service. If, in 
this time, he has just learned his incompetency, there must be some- 
thing wrong in his mental or moral capacity. I believe the latter, 
and, therefore, he is dismissed the service, subject to the approval 
cf the president. If incompetent, he has done the United States 
no service, but much harm, and is entitled to no pay." 

Another : 

" Any officer who makes 4 business affairs' a reason for quitting 



MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



551 



the sewice at this juncture, has dishonored himself, and should be 

dishonorably discharged, as is done in the case of Captain 

Another : 

" Captain 's resignation is accepted, but he is dishonorably 

discharged from the service. If his medical certificate is true, that 
he has been suffering for five years under the disease because of 
which he now leaves the service, without its yielding to medical 
skill, it was both immoral and dishonorable to have taken the com- 
mission." 

There are indorsements of another character upon some of the 
applications for leave of absence ; as witness this, upon the back of 
an application for a short leave from Lieutenant-Colonel Keith, of 
the Twenty-first Indiana. 

"Granted. Colonel Keith's services to the government have 
been most valuable. His gallantry and courage are honorably 
mentioned." 

General Butler's care of the health of the troops during the hot 
season was assiduous and wisely directed. Familiar with sanitary 
science, he was able to give explicit and effectual orders on the sub- 
ject, as well as sound advice to the surgeons. The men were 
required to wear their woolen clothes during the summer; to 
bathe frequently ; to avoid sleeping in the open air ; to keep their 
camps religiously clean ; to abstain from stimulating food and drink ; 
to avoid needless fatigue and exposure to the sun. 

Observe the four orders that follow, particularly the last para- 
graph of the second : 

"Nbw Oeleaxs, June 3. 1862. 

"t The laundresses of companies are not permitted to come into the 
quarters of the men. They must be kept in their own quarters, and the 
clothing sent to them and sent for. 

"H Any officer who permits a woman, black or white, not his wife 
in his quarters, or the quarters of his company, will be dismissed the ser- 
vice.'" 

"New Oeleaxs. September 19. 1862. 
K I. It having been made to appear to the commanding general, that 
upon marches and expeditions, soldiers of the United States army have en- 
tered houses, and taken therefrom private property, and appropriated the 
same to their own use ; 



558 



MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



"It is therefore ordered, that a copy of General Order No. 107, current 
series, from the war department, be distributed to every commissioned 
officer of this command, and that the same be read, together with this order, 
to each company in this department three several times at different com- 
pany roll-calls. 

"II. It is farther ordered, that all complaints that private property has 
been taken from peaceable citizens, in contravention of said General Order 
No. 107, be submitted to a board of survey, and that the amount of damage 
determined shall be deducted from the pay of the officers commanding 
the troops committing the outrage — in proportion to their rank.'''' 

"New Obleaxs, November 11, 1862. 

" I. Any commissioned officer who is found drinking intoxicating liquors 
in any public drinking-place or other public house within this department, 
will be recommended to the president for dismissal from the service. 

" II. All police-officers are ordered to report in writing to these head- 
quarters all instances of the violation of this order, which may come under 
their notice." 

"New Obleans, July 8, 1862. 
" The acting sutler of the Twenty-sixth regiment of Massachusetts volun- 
teers will be sent home by the first boat as a steerage passenger to New 
York ; in the mean time, to be kept in close confinement. 

ik He has been engaged in selling liquors to the soldiers, and speculating 
upon the flour belonging to the United States. 

kk The provost-marshal will see to the execution of this order. 

"By order of Major-General Butler, 

" R. S. Davies, Captain and A. A. A. 

Another special order may be quoted in this connection : " First 
Lieutenant T. L. Lynch, quartermaster of Third regiment of Xa 
tive Guards (colored), is hereby reduced to his former position 
as private in the Fifteenth Maine volunteers, for drunkenness in 
the streets, and in a public dance-house. Quartermaster Sergeant 
Henry C. Wright, Ninth Connecticut Volunteers, is hereby ap- 
pointed first lieutenant of the Third [Native Guards, vice Lynch, 
reduced to the ranks." 

Discipline thus administered produces but one result. "The 
demeanor of our soldiers in Xew Orleans," remarks one disintei- 
ested observer, " entitles them to the highest encomiums. A more 
quiet, orderly, respectable set of private soldiers no army ever 
contained. Instances of rowdyism and intoxication are extremely 



MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



559 



rare, and those few which do occur are promptly and severely pun- 
ished by deprivation of pay and imprisonment. Most of the 
troops here are of New England origin, and certainly they do 
credit to the land of their birth." Nor can we be surprised to 
read in the Delta, that after one pay day, three hundred thousand 
dollars were sent home in small packages, besides a very large sum 
under the allotment system. 

The general himself noticed the behavior of the troops in a 
special order of June 14th: 

" Soldiers ! Your behavior in New Orleans has been admirable ! 
Withstanding the temptations of a great city, to present such dis- 
cipline and efficiency is the highest exhibition of soldierly qualities. 
You have done more than win a great battle ; you have conquered 
yourselves. You have convinced the people of New Orleans that 
you are worthy of the flag you bear in triumph ! He is more of a 
coward who yields to his own weakness, than he who surrenders 
to an enemy ! Go on, as you have begun, true to your New Eng- 
land training and her religious influences, showing the men and 
women of the South that where our bayonets are, there are peace, 
quiet, liberty, safety, and order under the law !" 

The devotion of officers and men to a general who took their 
part so well against all enemies, was remarkable. Many affecting 
proofs of this devotion could be adduced, but the growing bulk of 
my manuscript warns me to omit details that are not essential. I 
will transcribe one paragraph from a letter written by a father upon 
hearing that his son, a fine young officer, had fallen at his post : 

" Now that all is over, let me say that Henry loved you, General ; 
not with the selfish attachment of the recipient and expectant of 
favors, but with the devotion that one manly heart feels for another. 
He would have died for you, as he would for me, or for his mother. 
I am nothing worth now, if I ever was ; but, to the end of my 
days, few or many, and sorrowful they must be, I shall remember 
your kindness to my poor boy with the deepest gratitude." 

General Butler's Mode of Dealing with Guerillas. 

Before noticing the important military events of the campaign, 
we should consider one of the commanding general's negative merits. 
He did not conquer more country than he could hold. The reason 



560 



MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



of this caution in an officer so enterprising and so proline of ideas, 
was stated b;r himself in an early dispatch to the war department. 

*' J* the present temper of the country here," wrote Gen. Butler, 
June 1st, ' it is cruel to take possession of any point unless we 
continue to hold it with an armed force ; because, when we take 
possession o1 any place those well disposed will show us kindness 
and good \s ishes ; the moment we leave, a few ruffians come in 
and maltreat every person who has not scowled at the Yankees. 
Therefore it is, that I have been very chary of possessing myself 
of various small points which could easily be taken. * * * * 
What I would recommend is, that I be allowed to raise here, or 
have sent me, a force large enough to hold, by armed occupation, 
every place of the slightest importance, with a supporting force 
that could not be overcome, and the country made to pay the ex- 
pense of such occupation. A few months under that regime would 
reduce the people to order, and assure the Union men that they are 
not to be given up to rapine and murder in a few days, by the re- 
tirement of our troops. In their present frame of mind, under the 
pressure of the orders of Gen. Lovell and the Confederate govern- 
ment — tr burn all the cotton and sugar — such burning will take 
place in advance of my march, wherever I may move, entailing 
great detraction of property upon its innocent owners, who, with 
tears i o their eyes, have entreated me not to advance into certain 
sections of the country lest their property should be burned ! 

" As an instance of recklessness of troops in arms, take the fol- 
lowing : The river has been unusually high, and a crevasse opened 
at certain points would do an immensity of damage. A party of 
forty rebels surprised the train on the Opelousas railroad, ran down 
to within thirteen miles of the city on the opposite side of the river, 
and there deliberately cut the levee in six different places. If their 
design had been carried out, they would have drowned out every 
plantation between New Orleans and Fort Jackson, seventy miles, 
but not injured the United States ; all this was done, because the 
planters were supposed to favor us. Prompt measures were taken 
by me to prevent the injury before it became irreparable, which 
proved successful." 

For these reasons, the active operations of the army were con- 
fined, at first, to sudden incursions into the enemy's country, either 
Cor the purpose of rescuing Union men, who were threatened by 



MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



561 



their neighbors with destruction, or of breaking up camps and rov- 
ing gangs of guerillas. The guerillas were numerous, enterprising, 
and wholly devoid of every kind of scruple. They made war pre- 
cisely in the spirit and in the manner of the band of murderers who 
recently butchered the unresisting business men of Lawrence. At 
that time, too, an act of congress restrained the commanders of de- 
partments from retaliation upon these miscreants. " It is useless," 
wrote General Butler, " to tell me to try them, send the record to 
Washington, and then to shoot them if the record is approved. 
Events travel altogether too rapidly for that. In the inean time, they 
hang every Union man they catch, and by their proclamations, they 
threaten to hang every man who has my pass. All this, while 
they are prating in their papers, and by the message of Davis, about 
carrying on a civilized warfare." 

The first dash into the inhabited country was made by Colonel 
Kinsman, who went fifty miles or more up the Opelousas railroad, 
to bring away the families of some Union men who had fled to the 
city, asking protection. He crossed the river to Algiers, and took 
possession of the depot and cars. He inquired of the bystanders 
where the engineers were to be found. " There goes one," a man 
replied. Colonel Kinsman hailed him, and he approached. A 
conversation ensued, which showed something of the quality of the 
more demonstrative secesh. Indeed, I allude to Colonel Kinsman's 
excursion, only for the purpose of introducing this model of a seces- 
sionist engineer to the admiration of his countrymen. 

" Are you an engineer ?" asked Colonel Kinsman. 

« Yes." 

M Do you run on this road ?" 
« Yes." 

" How long have you been on the road ?" 
" Six years." 

" I want you to run a train of cars for me ?" 
" I won't run a train for any damned Yankee." 
ts Yes, you will." 
" No, I won't." 

" You will, and without the slightest accident, too." 
" I'll die first." 

" Precisely. You have stated the exact alternative. The first 
thing that goes wrong, you're a dead man. So march along with us." 



562 



MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



The man obeyed. Upon getting out of hearing of his towns- 
men, he appeared more pliant, and the conversation was resumed. 
" What is your name ?" 
"Pierce." 

" Pierce ? why that is a Yankee name. Where were you born ?" 

"In Boston,:'' 

" Are you married ?" 

"Yes." 

"Where was your wife born?" 

" At East Cambridge." 

"How long have you been in the South?" 

" About six years." 

" And you are the man who wouldn't run a train for a damned 
Yankee ! You are, indeed, a damned Yankee. Go home, and see 
that you are promptly on hand to-morrow morning." 

He was promptly on hand in the morning, ready to run the train 
for his condemned countrymen. But as competent engineers were 
found among the troops, it was thought best not to risk the success 
of the expedition by trusting the renegade, and the objects of the 
party were accomplished without his aid. The train ran through 
the Lafourche district, the garden of Louisiana, the inhabitants of 
which Colonel Kinsman found to be fierce, uncompromising foes of 
the United States. At the city of Lafourche he met the leading 
men of the district, face to face, at the court-house. 

" We are united as one man against you," said the spokesman of 
the party. 

"I care not," responded Colonel Kinsman, "how united you 
are, or against what you are united ; I have only this to say to you, 
that if one more Union man is harmed in Lafourche, the town will 
be burned to the last shed." 

They could not disguise their astonishment at the spectacle of a 
hundred Union troops penetrating a region so populous with ene- 
mies. It was something they had not in the least expected. They 
were destined, however, to become extremely familiar with the 
dingy blue of the federal uniform. 

The case of this Yankee engineer was very far from being the 
only instance of the kind. As a rule, the loudest secessionists in 
Louisiana were people of northern birth and education. Several of 
the female teachers in the public schools in lS"ew Orleans, who were 



MILITAEY OPERATIONS. 



563 



among the most zealous in teaching their pupils to chant the songs 
of Secessia, and to insult the soldiers of the Union in the streets, 
were found to be natives of New England. The fact shows how 
exquisitely adapted the system of slavery is to evoke the latent 
baseness of the weak, the vain, and the unregenerate. It is, also, 
another proof that renegades are necessarily more zealous than the 
hereditary adherents of a bad cause. 

The dash of Colonel John C. Keith, of the Twenty-first Indiana, 
into the same Lafourche, was a most brilliant little affair. He gave 
a lesson to guerillas which Lafourche will never forget. He gave a 
hint to guerilla hunters which, when it is universally taken, will 
soon extinguish the last of those savages. 

In the course of the famous hunt after the steamer Fox, by Colonel 
M'Millan, a party of four sick soldiers had been sent back through 
the Lafourche country. A gang of guerillas, inhabitants of the 
district, lay in ambush near the road, fired into the wagons in which 
the sick men lay, killed two of them and wounded two. The bodies 
of the murdered men were stripped, then kicked and clubbed until 
they had lost almost all resemblance to human bodies, and, finally, 
thrown by some negroes into a hole two feet deep, dug in the very 
public square of the town of Houma. The mound of earth heaped 
over them was conspicuous to all residents and travelers. One of 
the wounded men, after almost incredible adventures, escaped. 
The other was thrown into a filthy calaboose at Houma with a ne- 
gro convict. 

General Butler sent Colonel Keith, with four companies of his 
regiment, and two pieces of Massachusetts artillery, to convey to 
the people of Houma his sense of the moral quality of their acts. 
He ordered Colonel Keith to use his best endeavors to arrest the 
perpetrators ; to hang them if found ; to arrest the abettors of the 
butchery ; and to confiscate or destroy the property of every man 
vho, in any way, before or after the deed, had been a participator 
n the crime. 

Colonel Keith was the very man for this duty. Seldom, in the 
annals of warfare, do we find an account of a piece of work better 
done. On arriving in the vicinity of the town, he arrested every 
man that could be found. Having reached Houma, he discovered 
that most of the inhabitants had fled, but all the men that remained 
he seized and securely held. He compelled the leading residents 



564 



MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



of the place to provide suitable coffins for the murdered soldiers, 
to disinter them with their own hands, to place them in the coffins, 
and to dig graves for them in the principal church-yard. The bodies 
were then borne to the Catholic church, where Lieutenant Rose 
read over them the burial service, in the presence of the whole com- 
mand. They were buried with the usual salute, and suitable in- 
scriptions were placed over their graves. 

This pious duty being performed, Colonel Keith demanded of his 
prisoners a complete list of the names of the men who had partici- 
pated in the ambush and abused the bodies of the two soldiers. 

They refused. He then gave them formal, written notice, that, 
unless w r ithin the next forty-eight hours the names were disclosed, 
he would burn and utterly destroy the town of Houma, lay waste 
all the plantations in the vicinity, and confiscate all the movable 
property to the United States. 

The prisoners being left to their reflections, soon came to terms. 
They sent for Colonel Keith, gave up the names of the murderers, 
and furnished information as to the direction of their flight. Then 
ensued, for several days and nights, such a scouring of the country 
for the fugitives as Lafourche had never known before. They were 
traced from plantation to plantation, from the open country to the 
forest, through the forest to the bayou. The pursuers found the 
planters haughty and defiant. Several of them boasted that the) 
had harbored the fugitives and helped them to escape, and refused 
to reveal the direction they had taken. There were five of these 
gentlemen. Colonel Keith swiftly doomed them to the penalty of 
participators after the fact. Their_ houses, barns, shops and sta- 
bles were burned; their horses, mules ana Jttle driven away; 
their persons seized and conveyed to Xew Orleans. 

The ringleaders of the ^nibush contrived to elude the pursuit ; 
but several of the less guilty participants were arrested. Before 
leaving Houma, Colonel Keith caused the jail into which the 
wounded soldier had been thrown, to be leveled to the ground by 
battering-rams. He hoisted the flag of the United States upon the 
court-house, and announced to the assembled people that its removal 
would be the signal of his return to burn the town. He made a 
requisition upon the authorities for a sum of money to defray part 
of the expenses of the expedition. Finally, he heaped burning coals 
upon the sore heads of the residents of Houma by distributing 



MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



565 



among the suffering poor of the town a considerable quantity of 
provisions, and leaving behind him for their benefit a drove of con- 
fiscated cattle. 

That is General Butler's idea of guerilla hunting. The highest 
praise that can be bestowed upon Colonel Keith's conduct was that 
vouchsafed by a rebel critic, who remarked that Keith was little 
better than Butler himself. The reader now knows one of the rea- 
sons why Colonel Keith's application for leave of absence was so 
agreeably indorsed by his chief. 

The command of the lakes gave the Union forces an advantage 
over the guerillas which was frequently used with effect. There 
was a troublesome crew of guerillas near Manchac pass, at the 
beginning of June, who plundered the neighboring plantations. 
Colonel Kimball, of the Twelfth Maine, landed four companies of 
his regiment in the vicinity, and pounced upon the position, driv- 
ing out the rebel troops and capturing all their camp equipage, 
artillery, and colors, as well as a general officer, with his valise full 
of Confederate recruiting money. 

New Orleans threatened. 

The attention of the commanding general, in July, was drawn to 
more important affairs than these. Rebel troops were concen- 
trating at various points in menacing proximity to Baton Rouge 
and ^NTew Orleans. Breckinridge, the general's some time political 
chief, now appeared in the field as his principal military adversary. 
The rebel ram Arkansas was reported by Captain Porter to be 
" above water," and capable of doing mischief. The spies of the 
general continually reported movements of rebel troops, and every- 
thing betokened that the project of expelling the " ruthless in- 
vaders" was about to be attempted. The preliminary stroke was 
to fall upon Baton Rouge, which was to be assailed by Breckin- 
ridge on land, and by the ram Arkansas from the river. The 
attack was made on the 5th of August. The country well remem- 
bers how gallantly it was repulsed in one of the best contested 
actions of the war, and how the ram Arkansas ran aground, and 
was shot to pieces and blown up by the Union gun-boats. I need 
not detail the story of that memorable day ; but there were some 



566 



MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



circumstances attending the battle not generally known, which 
may be profitably noted by military men. 

The papers before me show how extremely difficult it is for com- 
manding generals to procure information trustworthy enough to 
base operations upon. Both generals were deceived on this occasion. 
General Butler, though no man ever had a better spy system than 
he, or paid more liberally for intelligence, was misled by his spies 
into supposing that the attack had been deferred ; and he wrote to 
General Williams to that effect, only two days before the battle, 
exhorting him, however, not to relax his vigilance. General 
Breckinridge, on the contrary, was deceived by intelligence that 
was perfectly true. The secessionists of Baton Rouge, who min 
gled daily with the Union troops, told Breckinridge, and told him 
truly, that more than one-half of the troops were on the sick-list. 
They told him, and it was. a fact, that one regiment, six hundred 
strong, only mustered one hundred and fifty on dress parade, and 
that other regiments were in a similar condition. But they did 
not tell him that those patriotic troops, debilitated by the summer 
heats, and too sick to appear on the parade-ground, were well 
enough to fight a battle for their country. They did not tell him 
that that very regiment, which could only muster a hundred and 
fifty men at dress parade, would turn out more than five hundred 
on the day of battle. He expected to meet skeleton regiments of 
skeleton soldiers ; he met regiments with full ranks, stanch and 
steady. His friends told him where the sick regiments were to be 
posted, and he directed his main attack against that part of the 
field. It is said that the reason why he threw away his sword, in 
a paroxysm of disgust, was not the loss of the battle, but a con- 
viction that he had been deceived and betrayed by the people of 
Baton Rouge. His sword was found on the field with his name 
engraved on the hilt. 

The death of General Williams, on this bloody day, was a griev- 
ous loss to the department and the country. He was not a popular 
officer, except in the hour of danger. The rigor of his discipline 
would not have lessened the good- will of his command toward him, 
for soldiers love a strict disciplinarian. Soldiers, indeed, will never 
long love an officer who is not inflexible in his administration of 
military law. But the manner of this heroic man was sometimes 
ungracious ; and, perhaps, he allowed his keen sense of the defects 



MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



567 



of the volunteer system to be too manifest. But on the day of 
battle only his great qualities were remembered, and every soldier 
felt that what General Williams ordered to be done was, infallibly, 
the movement which the moment required. Toward the close of 
the engagement, he came up to a regiment which had lost every 
field officer, and a large number of the company officers. 

" We have no officers, General," said some of the men. 

" Forward ! my brave Indianians," he cried : " I will lead you 
myself." 

At that instant, a ball pierced his breast, and he fell never to rise 
again. 

The manner in which General Butler commemorated the conduct 
of his victorious troops merits the attention of readers. A general 
order was dedicated to the memory of General Williams : 

" New Orleans, August 7, 1862. 

" The commanding general announces to the army of the gulf the sad 
event of the death of Brigadier-General Thomas Williams, commanding 
Second brigade, in camp at Baton Eouge. 

" The victorious achievement — the repulse of the division of Major-Gen- 
eral Breckinridge, by the troops led on by General "Williams, and the de- 
struction of the mail-clad Arkansas, by Captain Porter, of the navy — is 
made sorrowful by the fall of our brave, gallant and successful fellow- 
soldier. 

" General "Williams graduated at West Point in 1837 ; at once joined the 
Fourth artillery in Florida, where he served with distinction ; was thrice 
breveted for gallant and meritorious services in Mexico, as a member of 
General Scott's staff. His life was that of a soldier devoted to his country's 
service. His country mourns in sympathy with his wife and children, now 
that country's care and precious charge. 

" We, his companions in arms, who had learned to love him, weep the 
true friend, the gallant gentleman, the brave soldier, the accomplished 
officer, the pure patriot and victorious hero, and the devoted Christian. 
All, and more, went out when Williams died. By a singular felicity, the 
manner of his death illustrated each of these generous qualities. 

" The chivalric American gentleman, he gave up the vantage of the cover 
of the houses of the city — forming his lines in the open field — lest the wo- 
men and children of his enemies should be hurt in the fight ! 

" A good general, he made his dispositions and prepared for battle at the 
break of day, when he met his foe ! 

" A brave soldier, he received his death-shot leading his men ! 



568 



MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



" A patriot hero, he was fighting the battle of his country, and died as 
went up the cheer of victory ! 

" A Christian, he sleeps in the hope of a blessed Redeemer ! 

" His virtues we can not exceed — his example we may emulate ; and, 
mourning his death, we pray, ' may our last end be like his.' 

" The customary tribute of mourning will be worn by the officers in the 
department." 

The funeral was celebrated in New Orleans, with all the pomp 
and solemnity which the resources of the department permitted. 
General Butler noticed, as he passed the British consulate, that the 
nag of the consulate was not lowered as the procession moved by. 
He sent to know why the customary tribute of respect had been 
omitted. Mr. Coppell explained the omission satisfactorily ; he was 
absent from his office, and was not aware that the funeral was to 
take place that day. 

Another general order was issued a day or two after the funeral, 
which gave a characteristic summary of the fight. 

" New Orleans, August 9, 1862. 

•* Soldiers of the Army of the Gulf : 

" Your successes have heretofore been substantially bloodless. 

" Taking and holding the most important strategic and commercial posi 
tions with the aid of the gallant navy, by the wisdom of your combinations 
and the moral power of your arms, it has been left for the last few days to 
baptize you in blood. 

The Spanish conqueror of Mexico won imperishable renown by landing 
in that country and burning his transport ships, to cut off all hope of re- 
treat. You, more wise and economical, but with equal providence against 
retreat, sent yours home. 

" Organized to operate on the sea-coast, you advanced your outposts to 
Baton Rouge, the capital of the state of Louisiana, more than two hundred 
and fifty miles into the interior. 

" Attacked there by a division of our rebel enemies, under command of a 
major-general recreant to loyal Kentucky, whom some of us would have 
honored before his apostasy, of doubly superior numbers, you have repulsed 
in the open field his myrmidons, who took advantage of your sickness, from 
the malaria of the marshes of Yicksburg, to make a cowardly attack. 

"The brigade at Baton Rouge has routed the enemy. 

" fie has lost three brigadier-generals, killed, wounded and prisoners , 
many colonels and field officers. He has more than a thousand killed and 
wounded. 



MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



569 



" You have captured three pieces of artillery, six caissons, two stand of 
colors, and a large number of prisoners. 

" You have buried his dead on the field of battle, and are caring for his 
wounded. You have convinced him that you are never so sick as not to 
fight your enemy if he desires the contest. 

" You have shown him that if he can not take an outpost after weeks of 
preparation, what would be his fate with the main body. If jour general 
should say he was proud of you, it would only be to praise himself ; but he 
will say, he is proud to be one of you. 

" In this battle, the northeast and the northwest mingled their blood on 
the field — as they had long ago joined their hearts — in the support of the 
Union. 

"Michigan stood by Maine, Massachusetts supported Indiana, "Wiscon- 
sin aided Vermont, while Connecticut, represented by the sons of the ever 
green shamrock, fought as their fathers did at the Boyne Water. 

" While we mourn the loss of many brave comrades, we, who were ab- 
sent, envy them the privilege of dying upon the battle-field for our country, 
under the starry folds of her victorious flag. 

" The colors and guidons of the several corps engaged in the contest will 
have inscribed on them — ' Baton Rouge. 1 

" To complete the victory, the iron-clad steamer Arkansas, the last naval 
hope of the rebellion, hardly awaited the gallant attack of the Essex, but 
followed the example of her sisters, the Merrimac, the Manassas, and the 
Louisiana, by her own destruction." 

There was yet another general order relating to the battle of 
Baton Rouge, which, long as it is, I can not condense, and can not 
endure the thought of omitting — so honorable is it to the heart of 
him who penned it, and so honorable to the brave men whose good 
conduct it chronicles. 

"New Oeleans, Aug'ast 25, 1861. 
" The commanding general has carefully revised the official reports of the 
action of August 5th, at Baton Rouge, to collect the evidence of the 
gallant deeds and meritorious services of those engaged in that brilliant 
victory. 

" The name of the lamented and gallant General Williams has already 
passed into history. 

" Colonel Roberts, of the Seventh Vermont volunteers, fell mortally 
wounded, while rallying his men. He was worthy of a better disciplined 
regiment and a better fate. 

" Glorious as it is to die for one's country, yet his regiment gave him the 
inexpressible pain of seeing it break in confusion when not pressed by the 



570 



MILITAET OPERATIONS. 



enemy, and refuse to march to the aid of the outnumbered and almost 
overwhelmed Indianians. 

li m The Seventh Vermont regiment, by a fatal mistake, had already fired 
into the same regiment they had refused to support, killing and wounding 
several. 

" The commanding general, therefore, excepts the Seventh Vermont from 
General Order No. 57, and will not permit their colors to be inscribed with 
a name which could bring to its officers and men no proud thought. 

" It is farther ordered, that the colors of that regiment be not borne by 
them until such time as they shall have earned the right to them, and the 
earliest opportunity will be given this regiment to show whether they are 
worthy descendants of those who fought beside Allen, and with Stark at 
Bennington. 

" The men of the Mnth Connecticut, who were detailed to man Nim's bat- 
tery, deserve special commendation. 

" The Fourteenth Maine volunteers have credit for their gallant conduct 
throughout the day. a 

" Colonel Mckerson deserves well of his country, not more for his daring 
and cool courage displayed on the field when his horse was killed from 
under him, but for his skill, energy and perseverance in bringing his men 
in such a state of discipline as to enable them to execute most difficult 
maneuvers, under fire, with steadiness and efficiency. His regiment be- 
haved admirably. 

" Fim's battery, Second Massachusetts, under command of Lieutenant 
Trull, its captain being confined by sickness ; Everett's battery, Sixth Mas- 
sachusetts, under command of Lieutenant Carruth. who fought his battery 
admirably ; Manning's battery, Fourth Massachusetts, and a section of a bat- 
tery taken by the Twenty-first Indiana from the enemy, and attached to that 
regiment, under command of Lieutenant Brown, are honorably mentioned 
for the efficiency and skill with which they were served. The heaps of 
dead and dying within their range attested the fatal accuracy of their fire. 

" The Sixth Michigan fought rather by detachments than as a regiment, 
but deserves the fullest commendation for the gallant behavior of its officers 
and men. Companies A, B, and F, under command of Captain Cordin, re- 
ceive special mention for the coolness and courage with which they sup- 
ported and retook Brown's battery, routing the Fourth Louisiana, and 
capturing their colors, which the regiment has leave to send to its native 
state. 

" Colonel Dudley, Thirtieth Massachusetts volunteers^ has credit for the 
conduct of the right wing under his command. The Thirtieth Massachu- 
setts was promptly brought into action by Major "Whittemore, and held its 
position with steadiness and success. 

" To the Twenty-first Indiana a high meed of praise is awarded. ' Honor 



MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



571- 



to whom honor is due.' Deprived of the services of their brave coloneL 
suffering under wounds previously received, who essayed twice to join hia 
regiment in the fight, but fell from his horse from weakness. With every 
field officer wounded and borne from the field, its adjutant, the gallant 
Latham, killed, seeing their general fall, while uttering his last known 
words on earth, ' Indianians, your field officers are all killed — I will lead 
you,' still this brave corps fought on without a thought of defeat. Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel Keith was everywhere, cheering on his men and directing their 
movements, and even after his very severe wound, gave them advice and 
assistance. Major Hayes, while sustaining the very charge of the enemy, 
wounded early in the action, showed himself worthy of his regiment. 

" The Ninth Connecticut and Fourth Wisconsin regiments, being posted 
in reserve, were not brought into action, but held their position. Colonel 
T. W. Cahill, Ninth Connecticut, on whom the command devolved by the 
death of the lamented Williams, prosecuted the engagement to its ultimate 
glorious success, and made all proper disposition for a farther attack. 

"Magee's cavalry (Massachusetts), by their unwearied exertions on 
picket and outpost duty, contributed largely to our success, and deserve 
favorable mention. 

" The patriotic courage of the following officers and privates, who left 
tne hospitals to fight, is specially commended : 

" Captain H. C. Wells, company A, Thirtieth Massachusetts ; 

" Captain Eugene Kelty, company I, Thirtieth Massachusetts ; 

" First Lieutenant C. A. E. Dimon, adjutant Thirtieth Massachusetts ; 

" Second Lieutenant Fred. M. Norcross, company Gr, Thirtieth Massachu- 
setts ; 

" Third Lieutenant Wm. B. Allyn, Sixth Massachusetts battery ; 

" Second Lieutenant Taylor, Fourth Massachusetts battery; 

" Sergeant Cheever, Ninth Connecticut ; 

" Private Tyler, Ninth Connecticut. 

" The following have honorable mention : 

"Lieutenant H. H. Elliot, A. A. A. G. to General Williams, for his cool- 
ness and intrepidity in action, and the promptness with which he fulfilled 
his duties ; 

" Lieutenant J. F. Tenney, quartermaster of Thirtieth Massachusetts, who 
fell severely wounded while acting aid to General Williams ; 

u Lieutenant W. G-. Howe, of company A, Thirtieth Massachusetts, act- 
ing aid to Colonel Dudley, dangerously wounded in five places before he 
quit the field ; 

"Lieutenant C. A. E. Dimon, adjutant Thirtieth Massachusetts, acting 
aid to Colonel Dudley, behaved most gallantly ; 

Lieutenant Fred. M. Norcross, Thirtieth Massachusetts, acting \id to 
Colonel Dudley, for daring courage in the field ; 



572 



MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



" Alfred T. Holt, assistant surgeon Thirtieth Massachusetts, for hnmane 
courage, taking on his back, under a hot fire, the wounded soldiers as they 
fell; 

" Lieutenant G. F. "Whitcomb, Thirtieth Massachusetts, gallantly dashing 
into the smoke of the enemy's musketry, bringing off a caisson left by Man- 
ning's battery ; 

" The gallant officer and admirable soldier, Captain Eugene Kelty, of 
company I, Thirtieth Massachusetts, who was ordered to deploy his brave 
and active company of Zouaves as skirmishers on the right, and in the per 
formance of this duty fell bravely at their head ; 

" Lieutenant W. H. Gardner, company K, Thirtieth Massachusetts, who 
fell wounded severely, but entreated not to be taken from the field until the 
battle should be ended ; 

" Color Sergeant Brooks, company C, Thirtieth Massachusetts, and Color 
Corporal Rogers, company K, Thirtieth Massachusetts, who lost his left arm. 
Both behaved admirably during the entire engagement; 

"Private McKinzie, company B, Thirtieth Massachusetts, who, though 
wounded, with a bullet still in his body, remained on duty throughout the 
engagement, and is now at his post ; 

" First Sergeant John Haley, company E, Thirtieth Massachusetts, com- 
manded his company bravely and well, in the necessary absence of his line 
officers ; 

" Captain James Grimsly, company B, Twenty -first Indiana, who com- 
manded the regiment after Colonel Keith was wounded, for his gallant 
behavior in following up the battle to its complete success ; 

" Adjutant Matthew A. Latham, Twenty-first Indiana, instantly killed 
while in the act of waving his sword and urging on the men to deeds 
valor ; 

" Lieutenant Chas. D. Seeley, Orderly Sergeant John A. Bovington, Cor- 
poral Isaac Knight, and private Henry T. Batchelor, all of company A, 
Twenty-first Indiana, who were killed instantly, while bravely contesting 
the ground with the enemy ; 

" Captain Noblett, Twenty-first Indiana, detailing men from his company 
to assist in working the guns in the Sixth Massachusetts battery, after the 
gunners were disabled, for his supporting Lieutenant Carruth and his bat- 
tery; 

"Lieutenant Brown of the Twenty-first Indiana, commanding a battery, 
improvised from his regiment, for the efficient manner in which he handled 
the guns. He deserves promotion to a battery ; 

" Captain Chas. E. Clarke, acting colonel Sixth Michigan regiment, pre 
vented the enemy from flanking our right, bringing his command at the 
critical moment to the support of Mm's battery ; 

"Lieutenant Howell, company F, Sixth Michigan, and Lieutenant A J 
Ralph, acting adjutant, for intrepidity ; 



MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



k ' Captain Spitzer, Sixth Michigan, in command of the company of pickets 
who handsomely held in check the enemy's advance ; 

" The fearless conduct of Lieutenant Howell, company F, and Sergeant 
Thayer, company A, Sixth Michigan regiment, after they were wounded, 
in supporting Lieutenant Brown's battery ; Lieutenant Eussey, company 

A, for his coolness and daring ; 

u Captain Soule and Lieutenant Fasset, company I, Sixth Michigan, aa 
skirmishers, were wounded; deserve special notice for the steadiness of 
their command, which lost heavily in killed and wounded. First Sergeant 

B. Stoddard, company I ; Captain Smith, company A ; Lieutenant Chess 
man, company B; Captain Davies Bacon, company K, provost judge ; 

" Major Bickmore and Adjutant J. H. Metcalf, of the Fourteenth Maine, 
wounded while nobly discharging their duty ; 

u Captain French, company K, Fourteenth Maine, who was terribly 
wounded while leading on his men to one of the finest charges of the battle. 
It is sorrowful indeed to add that by the accident to the steamer White- 
man he was drowned. 

" Second Sergeant J. K Seavy, company C ; 

" Corporal Edminster, company D ; 

" Second Sergeant Snow, company D ; 

"Private A. Blackman, company F ; 

" Private Preble, company F ; 
All of the Fourteenth Maine, and are commended for rare bravery. 

** Acting Ordnance Sergeant Long ; 

iC Quartermaster Sergeant Gardner, and 

" Commissary Sergeant Jackman ; 

" All of the Fourteenth Maine, and all of whom borrowed guns and en- 
tered the ranks at the commencement of the action. 

" Captain Chas. H. Manning, Fourth Massachusetts battery, who fought 
his battery admirably, and established his reputation as a commander. 

" John Donaghue, Fourth Massachusetts battery, who brought off from 
the camp of the Seventh Vermont regiment their colors at the time of their 
retreat. 

"Private John E. Duffee, Fourth Massachusetts battery; private Ealph 
O. Eowley, of Magee's cavalry, who together went into the field, hitched 
horses unto a battery wagon of the Sixth Massachusetts battery, and brought 
it off under the fire of the enemy ; 

" Lieutenant Wra. B. Allyn, who had two horses shot under him ; Lieu- 
tenant Frank Bruce, Orderly Sergeant Baker, Sergeant Wachter, Corporal 
Wood and private George Andrews, all of the Sixth Massachusetts battery, 
for especial bravery, gallantry, and good conduct ; 

" Sergeant Cheever and privates Tyler, Shields and Clogston, of the 
Xinth Connecticut, for the skill and bravery with which they worked one 
of their guns ; 



574 



MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



" Captain S. W. Sawyer, of company H, Xinth Connecticut, for his daring 
reconnoissance on the morning of the 9th, during which he found and se- 
cured three of the enemy's caissons, filled with ammunition." 

The paragraphs reflecting upon the conduct of the Seventh Ver- 
mont led to an investigation of its behavior in the battle, which re- 
sulted in the vindication of the regiment. General Butler published 
an order, which corrected the error into which the first reports of 
the action had led him, and restored the regiment to all its honors. 

The repulse at Baton Rouge changed the plans of the rebel lead- 
ers ; but did not induce them to give up their main design. Gen- 
eral Butler himself had no fear for the safety of New Orleans. He 
fully expected an attack, however, and disposed his forces to meet 
it, even withdrawing the troops from Baton Rouge, and leaving it 
to the custody of the gun-boats. But the Confederate leaders, be- 
fore the month of September was ended, abandoned their scheme. 
The Union army in New Orleans had been recruited by white and 
colored troops, and at whatever point the enemy " felt" the Union 
lines, they found them unyielding to the touch. 



The absurd guerilla warfare, however, was never intermitted. I 
call it absurd, because while it was fomented by the Confederate 
government, and encouraged by its non-combatant partisans, it 
was more destructive of rebel property than injurious to the dnited 
States. It is melancholy to read the reports of officers who com- 
manded parties sent against the bandits who were ravaging Loui- 
siana. Major F. H. Peck, of the Twelfth Connecticut, who spent a 
week in the early part of August, in guerilla hunting on the shores 
of Lake Pontchartrain, found everywhere the traces of indiscrimi- 
nate plunder and destruction. 

Ascending the Pearl river, he says, " We found the people in 
great destitution, and beset by plunderers on every side." Again, 
at Pass Christian : " We found the place deserted by nearly all its 
population, who, as from other towns we visited, are daily flying 
by boat-loads to avoid impressment into the Confederate service. 
They are destitute of the necessaries of life." " At Shields's Bow, 
outrages too gross for description have been recently perpetrated 
by guerillas, who find apologists among the most prominent citi- 




Gmrilla 




MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



575 



zens of the place.' 1 " At Louisburgh all the docks and buildings 
were burned by a party of guerillas two weeks since. It will cost 
many thousand dollars to rebuild them." " Madisonville was de- 
serted, and nearly every public and private building closed." " In 
many places flour had not been seen for months." " We met large 
numbers flying to the protection of the federal army, and at each 
place visited by us, without exception, we were besought by men 
and women for passage to Xew Orleans. At several places we were 
asked to leave troops for protection against their professed friends." 
" Authorized and commissioned as the guerillas are, they are actu- 
ated by no motive but plunder ; they fight only froin ambuscade, 
and war indiscriminately upon friend and foe." 

So it was in Spain, when the Spanish people asked Marshal 
Soult for protection against their own guerillas. Mexico tells the 
same story. So it is now in Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and 
Virginia. The world will never know what the people of the 
SoutE have suffered, and are suffering, from bandits bearing the 
authorization of the rebel government, and carrying the ugly flag 
of organized treason. 

Through this starving land streamed incessantly droves of cattle 
from Texas for the rebel armies. There is one ferry upon the Mis- 
sissippi over which, it is computed, two hundred thousand Texan 
cattle were carried during the first eighteen months of the war. A 
few days after Major Peck's return, Colonel S. Thomas, of the Eighth 
Vermont dashed northward, with a force of cavalry and artillery*, 
and captured a drove of fifteen hundred cattle from Texas, and 
brought them all safely within the Union lines. 

One of these raids into the enemy's country I will relate with a 
little more detail. It was the most daring little enterprise of the 
campaign, and well illustrated the splendid valor of the officer who 
commanded it, the late General George C. Strong. I little thought, 
when I heard him tell the story in his gay and sprightly manner, a 
few days before his departure for Charleston, that before the tale 
could get into print, his eyes would be closed for ever. He died as he 
wished to die, and as he meant to die. " I shall not die by disease," 
he said to a friend, who spoke to him upon his health, about the 
time of this exploit in Louisiana. In war, the more valuable a life 
is, the more likely it is to be lost, and never was a life more lavishly 
risked than his. 



576 



MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



General Jeff. Thompson, who commanded the rebel forces near 
the shores of Lake Pontchartrain, is an officer of a humorous turn 
of mind. He had written some saucy notes to General Butler, 
during the summer, one of which has been given in a previous 
chapter. He was also the animating spirit of the legitimate war- 
fare which was waged in the country in the vicinity of his camp, and 
commanded part of the forces designed to invest New Orleans. 
Major Strong learned from the Union spies that the head-quarters 
of this merry chieftain were at the village of Ponchatoula, where 
he had but two companies of infantry, and no cannon, the main 
camp being nine miles to the north of it. At Ponchatoula, also, 
were depots of supplies, a post-office, and a telegraph-office, the 
sudden seizure of which might disclose valuable information. The 
village was six miles from the Tangipaho river, a navigable stream. 
Major Strong conceived the project of ascending this river in a 
steamboat, landing a force soon after midnight, surprising the vil- 
lage at daybreak, capturing the general, the letters and the dis- 
patches, destroying the supplies, and beating a hasty retreat to 
the steamer before the alarm could reach the main body of the enemy. 

At four in the afternoon of September 13, three companies of 
the Twelfth Maine, under Captain Thornton, Captain Farrington, 
and Captain Winter, and one company of the Twenty-sixth Massa- 
chusetts, under Captain Pickering, embarked on board the Ceres. 
At eleven in the evening the steamer reached the mouth of the 
Tangipaho, and grounded on the bar. When, after a severe strug- 
gle, this obstacle had been overcome, the boat pushed up the nar- 
row, winding river four miles ; when it was one o'clock — too late 
for the contemplated surprise. Major Strong determined to wait 
till the next night, and returned to the mouth of the river. To pre- 
vent the sending of intelligence to the enemy, he directed Lieutenant 
Martin to collect and bring in every small boat on the Tangipaho. 

Lieutenant Martin, a very young officer, fresh from a comfort- 
able home in New York, who had volunteered to serve as aid to 
the commander of the party, had a view of the horrors of war in 
performing this duty, which he will never forget, if he should live 
to be a lieutenant-general. The shores of the river, in the dim light 
of the morning, presented to his view nothing but desolation. 
Many of the houses were deserted, and every garden and field lay 
waste. Gaunt, yellow, silent figures stood looking at the passing 



MILITARY OPERATION'S. 



577 



boat, images of despair. The people there had been small farmers, 
market-gardeners, fishermen, and shell-diggers ; all of them being 
absolutely dependent upon the market of New Orleans, from which 
they had been cut off for four months. Roving bands of guerillas 
and the march of regiments had robbed them of the last pig, the 
last chicken, the last egg, and even of their half-grown vegetables. 
In all that region there was nothing to eat but corn on the cob, and 
of that only a few pecks in each house. Lieutenant Martin was 
hailed from one of the houses : 

"There's a child dying here. For God's sake send a doctor 
ashore to save it !" 

The nature of the duty he was upon forbade delay ; but, as he 
was returning, an hour later, with his fleet of boats, he stopped at 
the house. The corpse of a girl, ten years old, wasted to a skele- 
ton, lay upon a bed in the cabin. Wasted as she was, it was evi- 
dent that she had been a pretty, refined-looking girl. 

"Of what did she die?" 

" We had nothing to give her but corn and fresh fish. We had 
no medicine. She could not eat what we had. She starved for 
want of proper food. That's what she died of." 

It was an awful scene — the white skeleton upon the bed ; the sul 
len, hungry, despairing family standing silently around ; the bare, 
comfortless room ; the utter devastation without. 

The young officer was obliged to tell them that he must have 
their boat. 

"If you do," said one of them, " we shall all starve, for we live 
on fish, and without a boat we can get no fish." 

The boat had to be taken, but it was returned within twenty-four 
hours ; and, in the mean time, Lieutenant Martin sent them a week's 
provisions. They seemed relieved when he left them, fearing to be 
1 compromised" by his presence. On slighter grounds than the 
mance visit of a Union officer, the guerillas had burned houses and 
heaped every kind of outrage upon the heads of helpless and un- 
offending people. Terror evidently possessed every mind. One 
man on the Tangipaho, of whom some slight service was requested, 
replied to Major Strong: 

" I'll do it, if you will agree to take me away with you. If you 
leave me here, I'm a dead man before your steamboat is out of 
eight." 



578 



MILITAET OPERATIONS. 



The Ceres could not ascend the river to the point proposed. 
Major Strong then steamed to Manchac bridge, the terminus of a 
railroad that led to Ponchatoula, ten miles distant. He had re- 
solved, rather than return to New Orleans defeated, to march along 
this railroad, and fall upon the place in open day. With two com- 
panies only, those of Captain Thornton and Captain Farrington, 
numbering one hundred and twelve men, he started soon after sun- 
rise. It was one of the hottest days of a Louisiana summer, with- 
out a breath of wind to temper the blistering rays of the sun. The 
path lay through a wooded swamp, and the railroad being laid upon 
trestle-work, the march was difficult and laborious in the extreme. 
Those huge lumbermen of Maine sank under the blazing heat. 
Four were sun-struck. Many fell through the trestles, and had to 
be hoisted out of the swamp by their comrades. They saw but 
one human being on the way. As they were sweltering slowly and 
silently along, the grinning face of a negro emerged from the bushes 
in the swamp. He waved his old hat above his head, and shouted, 

" Hurrah ! I always said the Yankees would come — and here 
you is !" 

, They were more than four hours in marching the ten miles. 
About eleven o'clock they began to see signs of the village. 
Another negro here darted from behind a car that was standing on 
the track : 

" Don't go no furder, master," said he to the major, " they've 
got cannon — they'll kill you all shore." 

The party pushed on. They soon descried a locomotive slowly 
backing toward the village, the engineer striving to get up steam. 
A dozen muskets were fired at him. He did not fall, but continued 
to recede with increasing velocity, and backed through the village, 
and beyond the village toward Camp Moore, screaming the alarm. 
There was no time to be lost. Major Strong ranged a file of men 
across the railroad, to hide the smallness of his force, while he 
formed his troops. They advanced at the double-quick, which soon 
became a full run, and so rushed into the village. The negro was 
right — the enemy had cannon. A blast of canister greeted the pant- 
ing troops, and laid Captain Thornton low, with ftiree balls in his 
body and four more through his clothes. Most of this canister, 
however, went crashing through a house in which many women had 
taken refuge, who came screaming into the street, and ran wildly 



MILITAEY OPERATIONS. 



579 



about between the two hostile bodies. Major Strong halted his 
men, and made new dispositions with most admirable coolness. 
One company he moved to the right, the other to the left ; and both, 
from partial cover or from advantageous ground, poured a steady 
fire into the ranks of the foe. For a few minutes the action was 
exceedingly sharp. Of Major Strong's 112 men, 33 were killed 
or wounded. Twice the enemy fled and rallied. But, within fif- 
teen minutes from the moment when the Union column entered 
the place, the rebel force, three hundred in number and six pieces 
of artillery, abandoned the village in hopeless confusion. 

But the bird had flown. Jeff. Thompson had left the evening 
before. His sword, his spurs, his bridle, his papers, were seized. 
These only — not his clothing and personal effects. The post-office 
and telegraph-office were searched. A large quantity of old U. S. 
postage stamps, and a considerable number of letters and dispatches 
were found and brought away. Twenty car loads of supplies were 
burnt. The telegraphic instruments were broken to pieces. 

As there were some thousands of rebel troops within nine miles 
of Ponchatoula, and a locomotive had carried the alarm thither, 
Major Strong was compelled to deny himself the pleasure of a long 
stay in the village. The weary tramp on the tressel-work was re- 
sumed. Several of the severely wounded were left behind — Capt. 
Thornton among them. The gallant Captain was exchanged a few 
days after ; he recovered from his wounds, and returned to his regi- 
ment. Before the troops had gone two miles from the village, 
down came a train of platform cars, with a howitzer upon each of 
them and men to work it. But Major Strong, who had anticipated 
a movement of that nature, had removed some rails from the track, 
and caused them to be carried along with the troops. The how- 
itzers, therefore, played upon the slowly retiring column from a 
distance which rendered their fire ineffectual. 

It was terrible, that march back to the steamboat. The men 
were exhausted to the degree that they begged and implored to be 
left behind. One young officer, deaf to the word of command and 
to the voice of entreaty, Major Strong could only rouse from the 
last stupor of fatigue by violently kicking him as he lay across the 
track. Nothing saved the command from destruction but a drench- 
ing shower, which put new life into them all, and enabled them to 
drag their weary limbs to the boat before dark. 
25 



580 



MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



General Butler characterized this incursion as " one of the most 
daring and successful exploits of the war, equal in dash, spirit, and 
cool courage, to anything attempted on either side. Major Strong 
and his officers and men deserve great credit. It may have been a 
little too daring, perhaps rash, but that has not been an epidemic 
fault with our officers." 

ISTo man who went with this expedition was surprised at the pro- 
motion of Major Strong to the rank of brigadier-general : still less 
at his splendid heroism in Charleston harbor. He was expressly 
formed to lead a forlorn hope upon an enterprise that was only 
one remove from the impossible. Like Winthrop, and so many 
other gallant spirits, he had given his life to his country long before 
che moment when the gift was accepted. 

Conquest of Lafourche. 

When the enemy had ceased to threaten New Orleans and its 
outposts, General Butler deemed it prudent to extend the area of 
conquest by reannexing the Lafourche district to the United States. 
A brigade of infantry, with the requisite artillery, and a body of 
cavalry, under an able and enterprising officer, Captain Perkins, was 
placed under the command of General Weitzel for this purpose. 
General Weitzel penetrated this wealthy and populous region in 
the last week of October. A series of rapid marches, one spirited 
action, and a number of minor combats, placed him in complete and 
permanent possession of the country in four days. 

It was here that the negro question presented itself so appallingly 
to the mind of the commander of the invading force. "What shall 
I do about the negroes?" he wrote to head-quarters October 29th. 
" You can form no idea of the vicinity of my camp, nor can you 
form an idea of the appearance of my brigade as it marched down 
the bayou. My train was larger than an army train for 25,000 men. 
Every soldier had a negro marching in the flanks, carrying his 
knapsack. Plantation carts, filled with negro women and children, 
with their effects ; and of course compelled to pillage for their 
subsistence, as I have no rations to issue to them. I have a great 
many more negroes in my camp now than I have whites. * * 
These negroes are a perfect nuisance." 

And the" next morning a party of General Weitzel's troops cap- 



MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



581 



tured four hundred wagon loads of negroes, which the enemy were 
attempting to carry with them in their retreat. There were in the 
whole district about 6,000 slaves, all of whom were in a ferment, 
and for the moment useless ; especially in the neighborhood whence 
almost "the whole white population had fled. 

For several days it could be truly said of Lafourche that chaos 
had come again. But General Butler's abandoned plantation sys- 
tem was soon in operation, and restored the community to a tolera- 
ble degree of order and safety. The standing cane was gathered ; 
the sugar-mills were set going ; the negroes were merrily working 
at ten dollars a month ; and the United States was reaping some of 
the advantage of their labor. A considerable number of the ne^'ioes, 
freed by the confiscation act, found the way into their regiments of 
" Native Guards," a procedure that was not pleasing in the sight 
of General Weitzel. 

By the conquest of Lafourche, an immense amount of property 
liable to confiscation fell into the hands of the commanding general. 
The people who remained on the plantations, made haste to endeav- 
or to save their property by making fictitious transfers. Some oi 
the officers of the invading force, finding large quantities of sugar 
lying about loose, which the owners were only too glad to sell at 
any price, caught the fever of speculation, and bought sugar to the 
extent of their means. General Butler visited the principal camp 
of occupation, and soon learned what was going on. Feeling that 
the whole army was in danger of demoralization if this speculation 
in sugar, and in commodities more portable, was allowed to con- 
tinue, he determined to apply a sweeping remedy. He devised a 
scheme, which not only stopped this irregular speculation, but 
poured the whole of the proceeds of the forfeited property into the 
public treasury. He sequestered the entire district, and all that it 
contained, subject to the final adjudication of a commission of 
officers. The following general order unfolds his scheme. As 
none of General Butler's acts in Louisiana has caused, or is causing, 
so much outcry as this, the reader should read this order with par- 
ticular attention. The order was executed to the letter : 

"New Okleans, November 9, 1862. 
" The commanding general being informed, and believing, that the dis- 
trict west of the Mississippi river, lately taken possession of by the United 



682 



MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



States troops, is most largely occupied by persons disloyal to the United 
States, and whose property has become liable to confiscation under the acts 
of congress and the proclamation of the president, and that sales and trans- 
fers of said property are being made for the purpose of depriving the gov- 
ernment of the same, has determined, in order to secure the rights of all per- 
sons as well as those of the government, and for the purpose of enabling the 
crops now growing to be taken care of and secured, and the unemployed labor- 
ers to be set at work, and provision made for payment of their labor 
"To order, as follows: 

"I. That all the property within the district to be known as the 'Dis- 
trict of Lafourche' be and hereby is sequestered, and all sales or transfers 
are forbidden, and will be held invalid. 

"II. The district of Lafourche will comprise all the territory in the state 
of Louisiana lying west of the Mississippi river, except the parishes of Pla- 
quemines and Jefferson. 

"III. That Major Joseph M. Bell, provost judge, president, Lieutenant- 
Colonel J. B. Kinsman, A. D. 0., Captain Fuller (75th N". Y. Vols.), pro- 
vost-marshal of the district, be a commission to take possession of the 
property in said district, to make an accurate inventory of the same, and 
gather up and collect all such personal property, and turn over to the proper 
officers, upon their receipts, such of said property as may be required for 
the use of the United States army ; to collect together all the other personal 
property, and bring the same to New Orleans and cause it to be sold at 
public auction to the highest bidders, and after deducting the necessary ex- 
penses of care, collection, and transportation, to hold the proceeds thereof 
subject to the just claims of loyal citizens and those neutral foreigners who 
in good faith shall appear to be the owners of the same. 

" IV. Every loyal citizen or neutral foreigner who shall be found in ac- 
tual possession and ownership of any property in said district, not having 
acquired the same by any title since the 18th day of September last, may 
have his property returned or delivered to him without sale, upon estab- 
lishing his condition to the judgment of the commission. 

" V. All sales made by any person not a loyal citizen or foreign neutral, 
since the 18th day of September, shall be held void ; and all sales whatever 
made with the intent to deprive the government of its rights of confisca- 
tion, will be held void, at what time soever made. 

" VI. The commission is authorized to employ in working the plantation 
of any person who has remained quietly at his home, whether he be loyal or 
disloyal, the negroes who may be found in said district, or who t have, or 
may hereafter claim the protection of the United States, upon the terms 
set forth in a memorandum of a contract heretofore offered to the planters 
of the parishes of Plaquemines and St. Bernard, or white labor may be em- 
ployed at the election of the commission. 



\ 



MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



583 



" VII. The commissioners will cause to be purchased such supplies as may 
be necessary, and convey them to such convenient depots as to supply the 
planters in the making of the crop ; which supplies will be charged against 
the crop manufactured, and shall constitute a lien thereon. 

" VIII. The commissioners are authorized to work for the account of the 
United States such plantations as are deserted by their owners, or are held 
by disloyal owners, as may seem to them expedient, for the purpose of sav- 
ing the crops. 

" IX. Any persons who have not been actually in arms against the Uni- 
ted States since the occupation of New Orleans by its forces, and who shall 
remain peaceably upon their plantations, affording no aid or comfort to the 
enemies of the United States, and who shall return to their allegiance, and 
who shall, by all reasonable methods, aid the United States when called 
upon, may be empowered by the commission to work their own plantations, 
to make their own crop, and to retain possession of their own property, 
except such as is necessary for the military uses of the United States. And 
to all such persons the commission are authorized to furnish means of 
transportation for their crops and supplies, at just and equitable prices. 

" X. The commissioners are empowered and authorized to hear, deter- 
mine, and definitely report upon all questions of the loyalty, disloyalty, or 
neutrality of the various claimants of property within said district ; and 
farther, to report such persons as in their judgment ought to be recommend- 
ed by the commanding general to the president for amnesty and pardon, 
so that they may have their property returned ; to the end that all persons 
that are loyal may suffer as little injury as possible, and that all persons 
who have been heretofore disloyal, may have opportunity now to prove 
their loyalty and to return to their allegiance, and save their property from 
confiscation, if such shall be the determination of the government of the 
United States." 

For six weeks the commissioners were employed in applying the 
confiscation act to the property in Lafourche, in establishing the 
loose negroes upon the abandoned lands, and in restoring to Union 
men their temporarily sequestered estates. 

The chief labor of thp commission deyolved upon Colonel Kins- 
man, as his associates had already their hands full of occupation. 
When the people came crowding about him professing loyalty to 
the Union, he reminded them that he had had the pleasure of visit- 
ing Lafourche in the month of May, when he had been informed 
that the inhabitants of Lafourche were united as one man against 
the United States. He gave them to understand that the taking 
of the oath of allegiance, at the last moment, by men who had given 



584 



MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



a thousand proofs of their complicity with treason, was not enough 
to secure their property from confiscation. The strict observance 
of this rule added, in the course of time, about a million dollars to 
the revenue of the United States, and deprived a large number of 
rebels of the means of doing harm. Colonel Kinsman had a most 
difficult duty to perform ; one that tasked equally his sagacity and his 
firmness ; and one that he shrank from undertaking. He acquitted 
himself well. He executed the order and the law with care and 
fidelity, and won the approval of all disinterested persons who had 
the means of judging his conduct. Some of the military speculators 
in Sugar grumbled at the rigor of decisions which deprived them 
of anticipated gain, and all the victims of the confiscation act ab- 
horred the officer who executed it. But the friends of the Union 
observed with admiration his tact and patience in investigating, 
and the impartial justice of his awards. A corrupt man in his situ- 
ation could have made a fortune with absolute security against de- 
tection. He forbore even to buy a hogshead of confiscated sugar, 
which he would have liked to send as a present to his New Eng- 
land home, lest he should give a pretext for the tongue of slander. 

Every dollar's worth of confiscated property was sold at New 
Orleans at public auction, of which previous notice was publicly 
given. No man had the slightest advantage over another in pur- 
chasing, and the entire proceeds of the sales were paid into the 
public treasury. 

Every secessionist in Louisiana will tell you to-day, that this 
pure and faithful officer retired from Lafourche a millionaire. They 
will also assure you that the rest of the proceeds of the confiscated 
property were divided between General Butler and his brother. 
They really believe that the general sent at least two millions 
away for investment during the eight months of his administra- 
tion. 

I was myself informed by a gentleman fresh from New Orleans, 
who had spent several weeks in the society of that city, that Gen- 
eral Butler had invested immense sums in New York lots. So he 
nad been told in New Orleans ; all secessionists in New Orleans 
believed it. " Corner lots," he particularly mentioned as objects of 
the general's ambition. As the two millions may not all have been 
expended, gentlemen having desirable corner lots to dispose of 
may, perhaps, find a purchaser somewhere in Lowell. 



MILITARY OPERATIONS. 



585 



Such were the principal military operations in the department of 
the gulf. If they were less splendid than those of other fields, if 
they were not all that the circumstances invited and required, it 
can be truly said that they were all that the force at the disposal 
of the commanding general permitted. What could be prudently 
attempted was handsomely done. In November General Butler, 
if he had dared to leave New Orleans inadequately defended for 
ten days, would have nipped Port Hudson in the bud. He dared 
not, with the force at his command, risk the tempting enterprise. 
And when, after months of waiting and beseeching for re-enforce- 
ments, re-enforcements arrived, they came provided with a major- 
general. 

Much of the success of General Butler in his department was 
owing to the fact that he contrived, in spite of opposing influences 
in Massachusetts, to take with him many officers of his own selec- 
tion — men whom he understood, and who were peculiarly adapted 
to render him efficient service. Several of these officers served 
long without commission and without pay. They were afterward 
commissioned by a stroke of General Butler's legal legerdemain. 
They were appointed to positions on the staff of some other major- 
general, not of Massachue „ts, and then " assigned" to the staff of 
General Butler. 

The general, however, was most ably assisted by the officers of 
his command, generally. Perhaps, I may say, without improprie- 
ty, that among those to whom he feels peculiarly indebted are the 
following officers : 

General Strong, now in glory ; Major Bell, General Weitzel, 
Captain Peter Haggerty, General Williams, now with General 
Strong; Dr. McCormick, Colonel Shaffer, Captain John Clark, 
Colonel J. W. Turner, Colonel Lall, of the Eighth New Hampshire ; 
Captain Thorne, of the Twelfth Maine ; Colonel Kennebec, of the 
same ; Colonel McMillan, of the Twenty-first Indiana, now brigadier- 
general ; Colonel Keith, Lieutenant-Colonel Kinsman, Captain Per- 
kins, of the Massachusetts cavalry ; Colonel Deming, of the Twelfth 
Connecticut ; Colonel Birge, of the Thirteenth Connecticut ; Gen- 
eral Shepley, Colonel Thomas, of the Eighth Vermont ; Captain R. 
S. Davis, Captain Kensel, chief of artillery ; Captain John F. Apple- 
ton, Colonel Payne, of the Second Louisiana ; Lieutenant-Colonel 
Everett, Major W. O. Fiske. 



586 



ROUTINE OF A DAY IN NEW ORLEANS. 



Many others, doubtless. But these are, certainly, among those 
whom General Butler would like to have with him if he had an- 
other New Orleans to take and tame. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

ROUTINE OP A DAY IN NEW ORLEANS. 

A Major-G-eneral commanding, as modern warfare is conducted, 
is in danger of becoming the slave of the desk. He carries a sword 
in obedience to custom, but the instrument that he is most familiar 
with is that one, which, ' eminent tragedians' say, is mightier than 
the sword. The quantity of writing required for the business of a 
division stationed in a quiet district is very great. But in such a 
department as that of the Gulf in 1862, a general must manage 
well, or he will find himself reduced to the condition of the 4 sole 
editor and proprietor' of a daily newsp. *w. His life will resolve 
itself into a vain struggle to keep down his pile of unanswered let- 
ters. General Butler employed seven clerks at head-quarters ; he 
had, also, the assistance of the younger members of his staff ; but, 
with all this force of writers to assist him, he wrote or dictated 
more hours in the twenty-four than professional writers usually do. 

Let us see how the day went in New Orleans. 

From eight to nine in the morning, General Butler usually 
received ladies at his residence, who desired to avoid the publicity 
of the office at the Custom-House, or w r ho had communications to 
make of a confidential nature. At nine, he went, in some state, to 
his public office. On his appearance at the front door, the guard, 
drawn up before the house, saluted, and the general entered his 
carriage, two orderlies being mounted on the box. The same cere- 
monial was observed when he entered the Custom -House. The six 
mounted orderlies, employed in conveying messages and orders, 
were drawn up before the principal entrance, and saluted the 
general. On his way to his own apartment, he had to pass through 
the court-room in which Major Bell was dispensing justice to the 



I 



ROUTINE OF A DAT IN NEW ORLEANS. 



587 



people of New Orleans. The major remarked the good effect it 
had upon the spectators to see the commander of the department 
remove his cap, as he entered the court-room, and bow to the pre- 
siding judge. On reaching his office, the general would find from 
one hundred to two hundred people, in and around the adjoining 
rooms, waiting to see him. 

The office was a large room, furnished with little more than a 
long table and a few chairs. In one corner, behind the table, sat, 
unobserved, a short-hand reporter, who, at a signal from the gener- 
al, would take down the examination of an applicant or an informer. 
The general began business by placing his pistol upon the table, 
within easy reach. After the detection of two or three plots to 
assassinate him, one of the aids caused a little shelf to be made 
under the table for the pistol, while another pistol, unloaded, lay 
upon the table, which any gentleman, disposed to attempt the game 
of assassination, was at liberty to snatch. 

That single loaded pistol, carried in a pocket or laid upon a shelf, 
was General Butler's sole precaution against assassination in a com- 
munity of whom a majority would have treated his murderer as a 
patriotic hero, and rewarded him with honor and with wealth. 
But that precaution sufficed. Chance gave him the reputation of 
being a dead shot, and every man who observed his movements 
could infer that his handling of his pistol would be quick and dex- 
terous. He was riding along one day, with a numerous retinue, 
where some orange trees, loaded with fruit, hung over a wall. As 
he rode by, he took out his pistol, and aiming it at a twig which 
sustained three fine oranges, severed the twig, and brought the 
game rolling on the ground. It was a chance shot, which, proba- 
bly, he could not have equaled in ten trials. But it answered the 
purpose of giving the impression that he was the best shot in New 
Orleans. Yet, it was surprising that no one attempted his assas- 
sination. He went everywhere with one attendant, or with none. 
His apparent carelessness was a daily invitation to the assassin. 

Another member of the staff, of a mischievous turn, had exer- 
cised his talents in printing, in large letters, the following sentence, 
legible to all visitors, on the wall of the room : 

"There is no difference between a he and a she 
Adder in their venom." 

Mrs. Philips, and other ladies of a similar disposition, would 
25* 



588 



JROUTLNE OF A DAT EST NEW ORLEANS. 



glare at the legend indignantly, as though this simple statement 
of a fact in natural history had some special reference to them. 

There was another little contrivance, which I believe was an 
achievement of the general's own genius. Some of his Creole 
visitors, and some of the Israelitish money-changers who came to 
him, were addicted to the use of garlic — a fact which .did not ren- 
der a close confidential interview with them so desirable as a con- 
ference from a point more remote. Consequently, the chair pro- 
vided for the use of such persons was tied by the leg to the leg of 
the table, so that it could not be drawn very near the one occupied 
by the general. The anxious petitioner, not observing the cord, 
was likely to open the conference by throwing the chair over. 
Others, who succeeded in seating themselves without this embar- 
rassing catastrophe, found all their attempts to edge up confiden- 
tially to the general's ear unavailing. This invention saved the 
general from the fumes of garlic, and compelled the visitor to speak 
loud enough for the reporter to hear him. 

The general being seated in his chair behind the table, with his 
artillery in position, heads of departments were first admitted, such 
as the medical director and the chief of police. Their reports hav- 
ing been received and acted upon, the chiefs of the Relief Com- 
mission and the Labor Commission entered and reported. Next 
to them such persons as consuls and bank directors. The first 
hour of the morning was usually consumed in conference with these 
and other important official individuals. Then the public were 
admitted, thirty at a time, who stood in a semi-circle before the 
table. The general would begin at one end of the line, and ask : 

" What do you want ?" 

They wanted everything that creature ever wanted : a pass to 
go beyond the lines ; an order on the relief committee for food ; 
protection against a hard landlord ; a permit to search for a slave ; 
aid to recover a debt ; the arbitration of a dispute ; payment of a 
claim against the government ; the restoration of forfeited proper- 
ty ; the suppression of a nuisance , employment in the public offices ; 
a gift of money ; information on points of law ; protection against 
a cruel master. Others came to give information, or to wreak an 
inexpensive revenge by denouncing a private foe as a public enemy. 
The general devoted an average of twenty seconds to the considera- 
tion of each. A few, short, sharp, incisive questions, and then the 



ROUTINE OF A DAY IN NEW ORLEANS. 



580 



decision, clear as yes or no could make it. And the decision once 
pronounced, there was not another syllable to be said. Every one 
got, at least, an answer, and the answer was generally right. Under 
the fire of General Butler's cross-questioning, the subterfuges and 
evasions of the unskillful rebels melted rapidly away, and the truth 
stood out clear and unmistakable. Sometimes, when a man had 
been detected in a falsehood, he would try again. 

" Well, General, I own it was a lie, but now I am going to tell 
the truth." 

It happened, not unfrequently, that the general would overturn, 
by an adroit question or two, the second version of the tale, and 
the man would essay a third time, calling all the saints to witness 
that now, at last, the pure truth should be told, and then immedi- 
ately coin a new series of falsehoods, to be instantly detected by the 
general. Scenes of this kind occurred so often, that it became a 
by-word at head-quarters : " Now I am going to tell you the truth." 

At eleven o'clock, the door being closed to miscellaneous appli- 
cants, the letters of the day were placed upon the table opened, to 
the number of eighty or a hundred. The general read over each, 
and disposed of most of them by writing a word or two on the 
back, "yes," "no," "granted," "refused;" in accordance with 
which the answer was prepared by clerk or secretary. Others 
were reserved for consideration or for answer by the general's own 
hand. Military business was next in order, which brought him to 
the hungry hour of one. After luncheon, the writing of reports 
and letters occupied the time till half-past four. Then home to din- 
ner. From half-past five till dark, the general was on horseback, 
reviewing a regiment here, visiting an outpost there, thus uniting 
duty with recreation. Then home to his private office, where he 
wrote or dictated letters till ten. The last tired scribe being then 
dismissed, the general retired to the only apartment into which no 
visitor ever entered, where, at a little desk in a corner, he wrote 
the papers and dispatches which were of most importance, or which 
were designed only for the eye of the person addressed. 

Even this constant devotion to the business of his position could 
not prevent an accumulation of unanswered letters. Frequently he 
was obliged to ply the pen all day Sunday, in order to reduce the 
mountain of papers, and begin the week with a clear conscience and 
a clean table. The business, however, was all done. No letter but 



590 



ROUTINE OF A DAY IX NEW ORLEANS. 



received its due attention. Letters from home asking information 
respecting soldiers who had suddenly ceased to write to their friends 
were invariably answered, and the fullest accounts given which 
could be procured. A decent application for an autograph was not 
neglected ; for the general kept a supply of the article on hand, 
ready folded, enveloped, and stamped. 

(< Why not ?" he said one day to Major Strong, who laughed at 
this business-like proceeding. " If I can gratify a person, by writing 
my name, why should not I do it ? At the same time, why should 
not I do it with the least trouble to myself?"* 

Thus the days passed. A trip up the river to Baton Rouge, or 
down the river to the forts, a ride to Carrollton, or a brigade re- 
view, varied the uniformity of the general's life. But most of his 
days were employed in the manner just described. " For hours," 
writes one, " he sits and patiently listens to complaints, and sug- 
gests punishments or redress. Returning to his hotel, he partakes 
of a simple meal, retires to his room, to be again besieged by crowds 
of officers and orderlies, charged with reports, or waiting orders. 
Late at night, I have seen the gas gleaming from his room (the 
door open by the necessity of getting some air in this suffocating 
climate), and the general buried in the labor of his extensive mili- 
tary correspondence."! 

It was not General Butler's office alone which was besieged by 
crowds of anxious people. Colonel French, General Shepley, Col. 
Stafford, Dr. McCormick, were only less busy than he, in answer- 
ing the arguments, and supplying the wants of the people. The 
intelligent writer just quoted attended, at the City Hall, the head- 
quarters of Governor Shepley, and noted the cases disposed of hy 
him in one morning. The catalogue will interest the reader : 

" General G. F. Shepley," he remarks, " the least observant of 
people would point out as a man of more than ordinary character. 
His figure is as straight as an Indian's, his eye — a light blue — is re- 
markably expressive ; the hair sweeps in a broad, bold dash away 
from his square forehead, and his moustache and imperial are per- 
fect. With his sword at his side, and standing up listening to the 
numerous people who call on him, I have rarely seen a more sol- 
dierly-looking man. 

* N.B. The supply is now said to be exhausted, the demand having exceeded the resource* <rf 

the market. 
+ Correspondence of the JVeto York Times. 



ROUTINE OF A DAY IN NEW ORLEANS. 



501 



" The first thing brought to the general's notice by the attendant 
clerks was a petition from the sheriff of New Orleans for the re- 
lief of certain prisoners. A tall, shrewish woman, now entered 
and asked for an order to make a tenant pay rent. Next came a 
woman, child in arms, detailing her sufferings, her husband having 
been impressed into the Confederate service. An old and very re- 
spectable gentleman desired a pass for a family of a mother, six 
children, and four servants, to Baton Rouge. A committee appeared, 
desiring work on the streets for poor men who had been in rebel 
service ; petition instantly granted, if the parties named would take 
the oath of allegiance. A gentleman appears, who wishes to get an 
order to repair a building occupied by United States troops as a 
hospital ; he was waved out with impatience. Merchants now 
crowd in with all sorts of questions regarding business matters. 
An officer of the navy obtrudes his gold-laced cuff, and places a let- 
ter on the table from Commodore Porter ; it is opened, read, and 
answer dictated, in a moment. A man now presents himself, and 
says his negro, who had been absent several days, said he was 
forcibly retained in the national lines ; General Shepley rises from 
his seat, his eyes flash ; he replies, mildly but positively, that he 
don't believe the negro's story, and demands a responsible white 
man for a witness, the complainant leaving precipitately. Old gen- 
tleman in an undertone asks a favor ; it is granted, and old gentle- 
man goes off delighted. An old lady in black now comes in, with 
a little negro girl following in the rear, carrying her work-bag. 
Old lady seats herself on the lounge, and the little negro girl 
crouches on the carpet at her feet. General Shepley gets up and 
speaks to old lady ; she says nothing, pouts at the contraband, and 
gets some answer that is satisfactory — for exit old lady, little negro, 
and work-bag. 

" A delegation of merchants now appear, who have some conver- 
sation about the currency. A city official makes a report about 
cleaning the streets. A Maine skipper comes in — his eyes enlarged, 
and his face on a broad grin. General Shepley is from his town ; 
but something more, the Maine skipper has found his vessel over at 
Algiers, that was taken from him some months before by the priva- 
teers ; he gets an order to take possession of his vessel, and an- 
nounces that he has more sugar offered him for New York than he 
€£,n put in hi-6 newly gained prize. Meantime, tw T o handsome young 



592 



ROUTINE OF A DAY IX NEW ORLEANS. 



ladies in gay colors have been quietly watching the proceedings 
through their half-drawn-aside veils, never deigning to come for- 
ward to make their requests. The General approaches them, and 
a most animated conversation in an undertone, so far as they are 
concerned, ensues. The general listens very attentively, evidently 
becomes interested, and grants the request. Now he goes to the 
ladylike personage in black. It is clear she is a widow ; and the way 
she rolled her large, speaking, dark creole eyes up into the face of 
the general, was well calculated to make an impression on the ' gov- 
ernor' if he had been born even farther north than Maine. The 
lady next pointed out her sons, and asked a favor. She wanted to 
get out of the city, and would the general be so kind as to give her 
a pass to go beyond the federal lines ? 

" A committee is now announced. It is headed by the president 
of the Union association, and is composed of its prominent mem- 
bers. They present a petition to the general, requesting certain 
municipal reforms. The next person introduced was a highly re- 
spectable and wealthy planter, who had never yielded to the pres- 
sure of secession, or never concealed his sentiments, though daily 
persecuted, and often threatened with imprisonment or assassination. 
He represented the sufferings in the ' interior parishes' as fearful, 
the evils of starvation and suffering occasioned by the rebellion 
being aggravated by the high water that had flowed in from the 
river, the levee law being entirely disregarded by the landed pro- 
prietors. 

" For five long hours the audiences continue, and only end to 
enable the general to resume new duties at his military head-quar- 
ters at the custom-house." 

The general life of the city had resumed something of its wonted 
careless gayety and business bustle. The morning markets of New 
Orleans were bright once more with red bandannas, and noisy with 
the many-tongued chatter of the hucksters — Creole, French, German, 
Spanish, and English. "I suppose," remarks a spirited writer,* 
" that nowhere since the dispersion of the builders of Babel, could 
be heard such polyglot vociferations as proceed from the sidewalk 
peddlers in the French market at New Orleans. On one side, the 
gesticulative Gaul rolls his r's with absolutely canine emphasis 
in the utterance of his native language, or gallicizes the English 

* Mr. Thomas Butler Gunn, the able correspondent of the Xew York Tribune. 



RECALL. 



593 



appellation of the most popular of vegetables into ' pa-ta-ta — s !' or 
informs you that the price of a bird or fish is 1 two bit ! two bit — 
you no like him, you no hab him !' On another, the German vocifer- 
ates with as harmonious an effect as might be produced by the 
simultaneous shaking up of pebbles in a quart pot, and the filing of 
a hand-saw ; while on a third and fourth, the Creole, Sicilian, and 
Dego rival each other in vocal discord. Fancy all this, and 
throw in any amount of obstreperous, broad-mouthed, gleeful negro 
laughter, and you have some approximation toward the sounds 
audible at the time and locality I have undertaken to describe." 

The far-famed rotunda of the St. Charles hotel again resounded 
with the noise of multitudinous conversation ; but its lofty dome 
echoed not back the sound of the auctioneer's hammer, that doomed 
the pampered house-slave to the horrors of a Red River plantation, 
or consigned a beautiful quadroon to the arms of a lucky gambler. 
The levee still looked bare and deserted to those who had known 
it in former years; but there was some life there. A few vessels 
were loading or discharging. The ferry-boats were plying on the 
river. The scream of the steam- whistle was heard, and steamboats 
were " up" for Carrollton, Baton Rouge, or Fort Jackson. In the 
stream lay at anchor a few representatives of the immortal fleet, the 
arrival of which, in the last days of April, ushered in a new era of the 
history of Louisiana. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

RECALL. 

There had been rumors all the summer that General Butler was 
about to be recalled from the Department of the Gulf. In August, 
he alluded to these rumors in one of his letters to General Halleck, 
and said, that if the government meant to remove him, it was only 
fair for his successor to come at once, and take part of the yellow 
fever season. General Halleck replied, September 14, that these 
rumors were " without foundation." Mr. Stanton had written 
approvingly of his course. Mr. Chase and Mr. Blair expressed 



5y4 



RECALL. 



very cordial approval of it. The president, in October, wrote to 
the general in a friendly and confidential manner. It was only the 
secretary of state who appeared to dread that total suppression of 
the enemies of the United States in Louisiana, which it was General 
Butler's aim to effect. But it was not supposed that his policy 
would carry him so far as to deprive his country of the services of 
the man who, wherever he had been employed, had shown so much 
ability, and who had just achieved the ablest and the noblest piece 
of impromptu statesmanship the modern world has seen. 

General Butler was going on in the usual tenor of his way. His 
favorite scheme, as the winter drew near, was the roofing of the 
custom-house, the citadel of New Orleans. The government had 
expended millions upon that edifice, and its marble walls had been 
completed, but it stood exposed to the weather, and was rapidly 
depreciating. The estimates of competent engineer officers showed 
that it could be covered for about forty thousand dollars with a roof 
of w T ood, which would last thirty or forty years, save the costly 
structure from decay, and render the upper stories inhatotable. He 
procured part of the necessary timber by seizing a large quantity 
which was the property of those notorious ' foreign neutrals,' Gau- 
therin and Co., and which, he was prepared to show, had been 
bought by the Confederate government. In executing the work, 
he intended to employ a large number of the men who were daily 
fed by the bounty of the government. The operation was about 
to be begun, when the order for his recall arrived. It would have 
been done in three months from the revenues of the department. 
The Custom-House is still without a roof. 

Another project engaged his attention toward the close of the 
year. He received information that a speculative firm in Havana 
had imported from Europe a large quantity of arms, which they 
hoped to sell to the Confederate government. He sent an officer to 
Havana to examine these arms, procure samples, and endeavor to 
get the refusal of them for three months, so as to gain time for the 
war department to effect the purchase of the arms for the United 
States. Captain Hill, the officer employed on this errand, had 
obtained a refusal of the arms for several weeks, when the change 
of commanders took place, and the affair was dropped. Captain 
Hill reports, that no citizen of the United States, supposed to have 
a public commission, was safe at that time in Havana- He was 



V 

V 



EECALL. 



595 



subjected to every kind of annoyance, and was warned by friendly 
Cubans not to be in the streets alone after dark. The town 
swarmed with rebel emissaries and rebel sympathizers, affording 
another proof that, in this quarrel, we are alone against the 
benighted men, and classes of men, who are interested in retarding 
the progress of civilization. The day after the departure of Cap- 
tain Hill from New Orleans, the report was current in the city that 
he had been sent by General Butler to the North, with two millions 
in gold, the spoils of Lafourche, to deposit in some place of safety 
against the coming day of wrath. He carried, in fact, just two 
thousand dollars in gold, to defray his expenses in Havana. 

New Orleans elected two members of congress in December, 
Mr. Benjamin F. Flanders, and Mr. Michael Hahh, both uncondi- 
tional Union men. Mr. Flanders received 2,370 votes out of 2,543 ; 
Mr. Hahn received 2,581, which was a majority of 144 over all 
competitors. The canvass was spirited, and no restriction was 
placed upon the voting, except to exclude all who had not taken 
the oath of allegiance. At this election, the number of Union 
votes exceeded, by one thousand, the whole number of votes cast 
in the city for secession. 

It could be truly said in December, that there was in New Or- 
leans, after seven months of General Butler's government, a numer- 
ous party for the Union, probably a majority of the whole number 
of voters. The men of wealth were secessionists, almost to a man. 
The gamblers and ruffians were on the same side. The lowest class 
of whites exhibited the same impious antipathy to the negroes, and 
the same leaning toward their oppressors, that we observe in the 
3orresponding class in two or three northern cities. But, among 
the respectable mechanics and smaller traders, there was a great 
host who were either committed to the side of the Union, or were 
only deterred from committing themselves by a fear that, after all, 
the city was destined to fall again under the dominion of the Con- 
federates. The Union meetings were attended by enthusiastic 
crowds, and the eloquence of a Deming, a Durant, a Hamilton, 
was greeted with the same applause that it elicits at the North. 
When General Butler appeared in public he was greeted with 
cheers not less hearty nor less unanimous than he has since been 
accustomed to receive nearer home. Late in November he made 
a public visit to the theater. When he entered the house the audi- 



596 



.RECALL. 



ence rose and gave him cheer upon cheer, just as in New York or 

Boston. 

The Union party, too, was a growing power. Union men now 
felt that they were on the side of the strongest. They knew that 
no man could be anything or effect anything, or enjoy anything in 
Louisiana, who was not on the side of his country. For Union men 
there were offices, employments, privileges, favors, honors, every- 
thing which a government can bestow. For rebels there was mere 
protection against personal violence — mere toleration of their pres- 
ence ; and that only so long as they remained perfectly submissive 
and quiescent. It has been truly remarked, that of the three powers 
of a community — the government, the rich and the multitude — any 
two can always overcome the third. In New Orleans the govern- 
ment and the multitude were forming daily a closer union ; and the 
wealthy faction, who had ruined the state, were becoming daily 
more isolated and more powerless. 

Meanwhile, the general was urging upon the war department 
the necessity of a larger force, that he might employ the cool season 
in reducing Port Hudson and extending the area of conquest in 
other directions. He entreated his old friend Senator Wilson to 
use his influence at the war department in his behalf. The sena- 
tor's reply is curious, when we consider that at the time of the 
interview which it records General Butler's successor in the Depart- 
ment of the Gulf had been appointed twenty-three days. " Your 
note," said Senator Wilson, " was placed in my hand to-day (Dec. 
2), and I at once called upon the secretary of war, and pressed 
the importance of increasing your force. He agreed with me and 
promised to do what he could to aid you. He expressed his confi- 
dence in you and his approval of your vigor and ability. This was 
gratifying to me, but I should have been more pleased to have had 
him order an addition to your force, so that you might have a 
larger field of action. I will press the matter all I can." 

Early in December it became well known in New Orleans that 
the government was preparing, in the ports of the North, one of 
those imposing expeditions of which so many have sailed on mys- 
terious errands during the war. Texas was supposed to be its 
object. Texas, I believe, was its ultimate object. 

In the absence of official information, and supposing his own ser- 
vices approved by the government, General Butler was left to infe? 



HE CALL. 



597 



that General Banks was to hold an independent command in the 
Department of the Gulf. He feared a conflict of authority. Nor 
could he regard with complacency the coming of another major- 
general to reap the laurels of the field, while he himself, after hav- 
ing done the painful and odious part of the work, was left still to 
battle only with the sullen, unarmed secessionists of New Orleans. 
Not to embarrass the government, he wrote to the president an 
unofficial letter on the subject. 

" I see by the papers," he writes, November 29th, " that General 
Banks is about being sent into this department with troops, upon 
an independent expedition and command. This seems to imply a 
want of confidence in the commander of this department, perhaps 
deserved, but still painful. In my judgment, it will be prejudicial 
to the public service to attempt any expedition into Texas without 
making New Orleans a base of supplies and co-operation. To do 
this there must be but one head, and one department. 

" I do not propose to argue the question here ; still farther is it 
from my purpose to suggest even that there may not be a better 
head than the one now in the department. I beg leave to call your 
attention, that since I came into the field, the day after your first 
proclamation, I have ever been in the frontier line of the rebellion 
— Annapolis, when Washington was threatened; Relay House, 
when Harper's Ferry was being evacuated ; Baltimore, Fort Mon- 
roe, Newport News, Hatteras, Ship Island, and New Orleans. It 
is not for me to say with what meed of success. But I have a right 
to say that I have lived at this station exposed, at once, to the pes- 
tilence and the assassin, for eight months, awaiting re-enforcements 
which the government could not give until now. And now they 
are to be given to another. I have never complained. I do not now 
complain. I have done as well as I could everything which the 
government asked me to do. I have eaten that which was set be- 
fore me, asking no questions. 

" It is safe for any person to come to New Orleans and stay. It 
has been demonstrated that the quarantine can keep away the fever. 
The assassins are overawed or punished. 

" Why, then, am I left here when another is sent into the field in 
this department? If it is because of my disqualification for the 
service, in which I have as long an experience as any general in the 
United States army now in the service (being the senior in rank), 



598 



EECAIX. 



I pray you say so; and so far from being even, aggrieved, I 
return to my home, consoled by the reflection, that I have at least 
done my duty as far as endeavor and application go. I am only 
desirous of not being kept where I am not needed or desired, and 
I will relieve the administration of all embarrassment. Praj do me 
the favor to reflect that I am not asking for the command of any 
other person ; but, simply, that unless the government service re- 
quire it, that my own, which, I have a right to say, has not been 
the least successful of the war, shall not be taken from me in such 
a manner as to leave me all the burden without any of the results 

" Permit me also to say, that toward General Banks, who is se- 
lected to be the leader of the Texas expedition, I have none but the 
kindest feelings, he having been my personal friend for years, and 
still being so. 

" Writing about my personal affairs, which I have never done 
before, I hardly know how to express myself ; but what I mean is 
this : If the commander-in-chief find me incompetent (unfaithful I 
know he can not), let me be removed, and be allowed to meet the 
issue before him and my country ; but, as I never do anything by 
indirection myself, all I ask of the president, as a just man, is that 
the same course may be taken toward me. 

" Allow me to repeat again, sir, what I have before said — although 
the determination may cause my recall — put the department which 
includes Louisiana and Texas under one head, and it will be best 
for the service. I pray you, sir, not to misunderstand me. I have 
given up something for my country, and can give up more. And 
this command is a small matter in comparison, in my mind, to my 
own self-respect, or to the good of the service. 

" I do not seek to embarrass the government by any action of 
mine, or in regard to myself. Far from it. I could even take my- 
self away rather than to do any thing which would weaken, by one 
ounce, the strength with which the administration should strangle 
this rebellion." 

It was too late. When this letter was written, the fate of the 
writer had been decided for twenty days. The answer to it came 
by rebel telegraph to the outlying camps of the enemy, and was 
brought in by the Union spies ten days, or more, before General 
Banks himself knew his destination. It came in the form of a 
positive statement that General Banks was coming to New Orleans 



EE CALL. 



599 



to supersede General Butler. The higher circles of secessionists 
were so certain of the fact that bets were made, in the principal 
club of the city, of a hundred dollars to ten, that General Butler 
would be recalled before the end of the year. It now appears, that 
the French government was first notified of the intended change. 
The news, probably, came direct, either from the state department 
or from the French legation. From whatever source it was de- 
rived, the rebels knew it before it had been whispered about 
Washington. Jefferson Davis knew it before General Banks, 
though Davis was at Jackson, in Mississippi, and General Banks 
was at Washington. 

General Butler submitted to the inevitable stroke with the best 
possible grace. He had had practice in submission. Had he not 
been recalled from Baltimore for doing his duty too well ? Had 
he not been recalled from Fortress Monroe at the moment it had 
become possible to reap the fruit of his most able and arduous 
labors? 

He gave General Banks a cordial and brilliant reception. At 
Fort Jackson, the arriving general, much to his surprise, was 
saluted by the number of guns which, by regulation, announce the 
presence of the commander of the department. At the levee of 
New Orleans, General Butler provided carriages, escort, and a 
saluting battery, and detailed members of his staff to superintend 
the arrangements for the honorable entertainment of his successor. 
General Banks arrived on Sunday evening, December 14, and 
immediately drove to General Butler's residence, where he was re- 
ceived with every honor. * He had a little billet to deliver, which 
explained the object of his presence in Louisiana with a brevity 
more than Roman : 

"War Department, Adjutant- General's Office, 
" "Washington, November 9, 1862. 

"General Order No. 184. 

" By direction of the president of the United States, Major-G-eneral Banks 
is assigned to the command of the Department of the Gulf, including the 
state of Texas. By order of the secretary of war, 

" E. D. Thomas, Assistant Adjutant- General. 

"H. W. Halleok, General-in-Chief" 

On Tuesday the sixteenth, the two generals met at head-quar- 
ters, where General Butler formally surrendered the command of 



600 



RECALL 



the department. Each general introduced his staff to the staff 
of the other. General Butler pronounced an eulogiuni upon the 
character and career of his successor, and ordered his staff to ex- 
tend to him and to his officers eveiy facility in their power for ac- 
quiring the requisite information relating to the department. The 
Delta, in chronicling the interview, bestowed due commendation 
upon the retiring general, but commended General Banks to the 
people and to the army with equal warmth. The Delta of the same 
day, published the last general order of the retiring commander : 

" He^d-quarters, Department of the G-tjlf, 
" New Orleans, December 15, 1862. 

General Order No. 106. 

" Soldiers of the Army of the Gulf : 

" Relieved from farther duties in this department by direction of the 
president, under date of November 9, 1862, 1 take leave of you by this final 
order, it being impossible to visit your scattered outposts, covering hun- 
dreds of miles of the frontier of a larger territory than some of the king- 
doms of Europe. 

" I greet you, my brave comrades, and say farewell ! 

" This word, endeared as you are by a community of privations, hard- 
ships, dangers, victories, successes, military and civil, is the only sorrowful 
thought I have. 

" You have deserved well of your country. Without a murmur you 
sustained an encampment on a sand bar, so desolate that banishment to it, 
with every care and comfort possible, has been the most dreaded punish- 
ment inflicted upon your bitterest and most insulting enemies. 

" You had so little transportation, that but a handful could advance to 
compel submission by the queen city of the rebellion, whilst others waded 
breast-deep in the marshes which surround St. Philip, and forced the sur- 
render of a fort deemed impregnable to land attack by the most skillful en- 
gineers of your country and her enemy. 

''At your occupation, order, law, quiet, and peace sprang to this city, 
filled with the bravos of all nations, where for a score of years, during the 
profoundest peace, human life was scarcely safe at noonday. 

" By your discipline you illustrated the best traits of the American soldier, 
ahd enchained the admiration of those that came to scoff. 

" Landing with a military chest containing but seventy-five dollars, froni 
the hoards of a rebel government you have given to your country's treasury 
nearly a half million of dollars, and so supplied yourselves with the needs 
of your service that your expedition has cost your government less \>y four- 
fifths than any other. 



EECAIiL. 



601 



" You have fed the starving poor, the wives and children of your enemies, 
so converting enemies into friends, that they have sent their representatives 
to your congress, by a vote greater than your entire numbers, from dis- 
tricts in which, when you entered, you were tauntingly told that there was 
' no one to raise your flag.' 

" By your practical philanthropy you have won the confidence of the 
' oppressed race' and the slave. Hailing you as deliverers, they are ready 
to aid you as willing servants, faithful laborers, or, using the tactics taught 
them by your enemies, to fight with you in the field. 

" By steady attention to the laws of health, you have stayed the pesti- 
lence, and, humble instruments in the hands of God, you have demon- 
strated the necessity that His creatures should obey His laws, and, reaping 
His blessing in this most unhealthy climate, you have preserved your ranks 
fuller than those of any other battalions of the same length of service. 

" You have met double numbers of the enemy, and defeated him in the 
open field ; but I need not farther enlarge upon this topic. You were 
sent here to do that. 

" I commend you to your commander. You are worthy of his love. 

" Farewell, my comrades ! again farewell ! 

" Ben j. F. Butler, 
" Major- General Commanding" 

The general immediately prepared for his departure. As he had 
received no directions as to his future course, he presumed that the 
place for him to retire to was his own home at Lowell. " Having 
received no further orders," he wrote to the president, " either to 
report to the commander-in-chief, or otherwise, I have taken the 
liberty to suppose that I was permitted to return home, my ser- 
vices being no longer needed here. I have given Major-General 
Banks all the information in my power, and more than he has 
asked, in relation to the affairs of this department." 

The general's farewell order to his troops called forth many 
pleasing proofs of the strength of their attachment to a commander 
who, on all occasions, had made their cause his own. Among the 
letters of those last days I find one which, I trust, may be printed 
without impropriety : 

"Lakeport, December 15, 1862. 

"Major-General B. F. Butler: 

"Sir: — Last summer you had occasion to reprimand an officer for an 
unintentional neglect of duty. Your manner and your words sunk deep into 



602 



RECALL. 



his memory ; and he always wished some opportunity might present itself 
when he could evidence by his actions his full appreciation of your delicate 
reproval. I am that officer ; and, in part, the wished-for opportunity came 
when I was ordered here. I have tried to do my duty, and feel that I have 
done it, because my general, for whose command I raised my company, 
who never forgets to censure or feo reward, has not reproved me. 

" For your kindness to the soldiers you will ever be held in loving re- 
membrance ; your past services will be remembered by the country, and be 
rewarded. 

" Now that you are to leave us, there can be no want of delicacy in my 
thus expressing my feelings. I say, good fortune attend you. Good-by, 
General ; God bless you ! 

"I remain, with great regard, yours ever to command, 

"John - F. Appleton, Captain commanding at Lakeport." 

On the twenty-third, there was a public leave-taking, when a 
great number of officers and citizens gathered round the general to 
bid him farewell. For two hours, a continuous procession of his 
friends passed by where he stood, and shook him by the hand. 
General Banks and his officers were among them. Admiral Farra- 
gut was there, with many officers of the fleet. 

It seemed good to the general to say a word of farewell to the 
people of New Orleans. Amid the hurry and bustle of his depar- 
ture, he found time to produce a Farewell Address, so grand in its 
truth, wisdom, and simplicity, that it must ever be regarded as one 
of the noblest utterances of the time, or of any time : 

FAREWELL ADDRESS. 

" Citizens of New Orleans : — It may not be inappropriate, 
as it is not inopportune in occasion, that there should be addressed 
to you a few words at parting, by one whose name is to be here- 
after indissolubly connected with your city. 

" I shall speak in no bitterness, because I am not conscious of a 
single personal animosity. Commanding the Army of the Gulf, I 
found you captured, but not surrendered ; conquered, but not or- 
derly; relieved from the presence of an army, but incapable of 
taking care of yourselves. I restored order, punished crime, 



\ 



RECAIX. 



603 



opened commerce, brought provisions to your starving people, 
reformed your currency, and gave you quiet protection, such as 
you had not enjoyed for many years. 

" While doing this, my soldiers were subjected to obloquy, re- 
proach, and insult. 

" And now, speaking to you, who know the truth, I here declar 
that whoever has quietly remained about his business, affording 
neither aid nor comfort to the enemies of the United States, has 
never been interfered with by the soldiers of the United States. 

" The men who had assumed to govern you and to defend your 
city in arms having fled, some of your women flouted at the pres- 
ence of those who came to protect them. By a simple order (No. 
28), I called upon every soldier of this army to treat the women of 
New Orleans as gentlemen should deal with the sex, with such 
effect that I now call upon the just-minded ladies of New Orleans 
to say whether they have ever enjoyed so complete protection and 
calm quiet for themselves and their families as since the advent of 
the United States troops. 

" The enemies of my country, unrepentant and implacable, I have 
treated with merited severity. I hold that rebellion is treason, 
and that treason persisted in is death, and any punishment short of 
that due a traitor gives so much clear gain to him from the clem- 
ency of the government. Upon this thesis have I administered 
the authority of the United States, because of which I am not un- 
conscious of complaint. I do not feel that I have erred in too much 
harshness, for that harshness has ever been exhibited to disloyal 
enemies to my country, and not to loyal friends. To be sure, I 
might have regaled you with the amemties of British civilization, 
and yet been within the supposed rules of civilized warfare. Yoi 
might have been smoked to death in caverns, as were the Cove- 
nanters of Scotland by the command of a general of the royal house 
of England ; or roasted, like the inhabitants of Algiers during the 
French campaign; your wives and daughters might have been 
given over to the ravisher, as were the unfortunate dames of Spain 
in the Peninsular war ; or you might have been scalped and toma- 
26 



604 



EECALL. 



nawked as our mothers were at Wyoming by the savage allies of 
Great Britain in our own Revolution ; your property could have 
been turned over to indiscriminate ' loot,' like the palace of the 
Emperor of China; works of art which adorned your buildings 
might have been sent away, like the paintings of the Vatican ; your 
sons might have been blown from the mouths of cannon, like the 
Sepoys at Delhi; and yet all this would have been within the rules 
of civilized warfare as practiced by the most polished and the most 
hypocritical nations of Europe. For such acts the records of the 
doings of some of the inhabitants of your city toward the friends 
of the Union, before my coming, were a sufficient provocative and 
justification. 

" But I have not so conducted. On the contrary, the worst pun- 
ishment inflicted, except for criminal acts punishable by every law, 
has been banishment with labor to a barren island, where I en- 
camped my own soldiers before marching here. 

" It is true, I have levied upon the wealthy rebels, and paid out 
nearly half a million of dollars to feed 40,000 of the starving poor 
of all nations assembled here, made so by this war. 

" I saw that this rebellion was a war of the aristocrats against the 
middling men — of the rich against the poor ; a war of the land-own- 
er against the laborer ; that it was a struggle for the reteution of 
power in the hands of the few against the many; and I found no 
conclusion to it, save in the subjugation of the few and the disin- 
thrallment of the many. I, therefore, felt no hesitation in taking the 
substance of the wealthy, who had caused the war, to feed the in- 
nocent poor, who had suffered by the war. And I shall now leave 
you with the proud consciousness that I carry with me the bless- 
ings of the humble and loyal, under the roof of the cottage and in 
the cabin of the slave, and so am quite content to incur the sneers 
of the salon, or the curses of the rich. 

" I found you trembling at the terrors of servile insurrection. All 
danger of this I have prevented by so treating the slave that he 
had no cause to rebel. 

" I found the dungeon, the chain, and the lash your only means of 

' / 



RECALL. 



605 



enforcing obedience in your servants. I leave them peaceful, labo- 
rious, controlled by the laws of kindness and justice. 

" I have demonstrated that the pestilence can be kept from your 
borders. 

" I have added a million of dollars to your wealth in the form of 
new land from the batture of the Mississippi. 

" I have cleansed and improved your streets, canals, and public 
squares, and opened new avenues to unoccupied land. 

" I have given you freedom of elections greater than you have ever 
enjoyed before. 

" I have caused justice to be administered so impartially that your 
own advocates have unanimously complimented the judges of my 
appointment.* 

"You have seen, therefore, the benefit of the laws and justice of 
the government against which you have rebelled. 

" Why, then, will you not all return to your allegiance to that 
government, — not with lip-service, but with the heart ? 

" I conjure you, if you desire ever to see renewed prosperity, giv- 
ing business to your streets and wharves — if you hope to see your 
city become again the mart of the western world, fed by its rivers 
for more than three thousand miles, draining the commerce of a 
country greater than the mind of man hath ever conceived — return 
to your allegiance. 

" If you desire to leave to your children the inheritance you re- 
ceived from your fathers — a stable constitutional government ; if 
you desire that they should in the future be a portion of the great- 
est empire the sun ever shone upon — return to your allegiance 

"There is but one thing that stands in the way. 

" There is but one thing that at this hour stands between you and 
the government — and that is slavery. 

" The institution, cursed of God, which has taken its last refuge 
here, in His providence will be rooted out as the tares from the 
wheat, although the wheat be torn up with it. 

* Upon the retirement of Major Bell from the bench of the provost court, the lawyers and 
others who had attended it presented to the major a valuable cane, accompanying the gift with 
expressions of esteem and gratitude, far more precious than any gift could be. 



606 



.RECALL. 



" I have given much thought to this subject. 

" I came among you, by teachings, by habit of mind, by political 
position, by social affinity, inclined to sustain your domestic laws, 
if by possibility they might be with safety to the Union. 

" Months of experience and of observation have forced the con- 
viction that the existence of slavery is incompatible with the safety 
either of yourselves or of the Union. As the system has gradually 
grown to its present huge dimensions, it were best if it could be 
gradually removed ; but it is better, far better, that it should be 
taken out at once, than that it should longer vitiate the social, po- 
litical and family relations of your country. I am speaking with 
no philanthropic views as regards the slave, but simply of the 
effect of slavery on the master. See for yourselves. 

" Look around you and say whether this saddening, deadening 
influence ,has not all but destroyed the very framework of your 
society. 

" I am speaking the farewell words of one who has shown his 
devotion to his country at the peril of his life and fortune, who in 
these words can have neither hope nor interest, save the good of 
those whom he addresses ; and let me here repeat, with all the 
solemnity of an appeal to Heaven to bear me witness, that such 
are the views forced upon me by experience. 

" Come, then, to the unconditional support of the government. 
Take into your own hands your own institutions ; remodel them 
according to the laws of nations and of God, and thus attain that 
great prosperity assured to you by geographical position, only a 
portion of which was heretofore yours." 

"Benjamin F. Butler. 

" New Orleans, Dec. 24th, 1862." 

Where is there a nobler piece than this ? Where one more 
exactly true? Where one more irrefragably wise? Happy the 
land which, at a crisis of public danger, can summon from the walks 
of private life a man capable, first, of doing these things, and then of 
recording them in a strain of such severe and grand simplicity. So 



EECALL. 



607 



Caesar might have written, when Caesar was a patriot. So Napo- 
leon, had Xapoleon been the citizen of a free country. But they 
did not. The situation was unique, and the piece stands alone} 
above and beyond all the writings of the great soldiers of the 
world. 

Peihaps I may be pardoned for mentioning the effect which its 
perusal produced upon one individual, the reader's most humble 
and most devoted servant and scribe. He had been for three years 
absorbed in writing, or preparing to write, a complete biography 
of the greatest of all Yankees, Benjamin Franklin. Upon reading 
this farewell address, he was drawn irresistibly to the conclusion 
that he must discontinue that fascinating employment for a time, 
and endeavor to inform his fellow-citizens how it had come to pass, 
that a hunker democrat, the Breckinridge candidate for the gover- 
norship of Massachusetts, a voter for Jefferson Davis in the Charles- 
ton convention, had become capable, in the course of two years, of 
writing General Butler's farewell address to the people of New 
Orleans. 

Another review of General Butler's administration has seen the 
light. It was written by Jefferson Davis, who was so considerate 
as to defer its publication until he had every reason to suppose that 
the general was on his way home. It was, in fact, published in 
Richmond the day before General Butler left New Orleans, so that 
he never saw it until his arrival at New York. As every one of 
the short sentences in General Butler's address is the simplest 
statement of a fact, so each of the paragraphs of Jefferson Davis's 
proclamation which relates to General Butler's conduct is the dis- 
tinct utterance of a lie. 



" Wheeeas, a communication was addressed on the 6th day of July last, 
1862, by General Robert E. Lee, acting under the instructions of the secrfl 
tary of war of the Confederate States of America, to General H. W. Hal- 
leck, commander-in-chief of the United States army, informing the latter 
that a report had reached this government that "Win, B. Mumford. a citizen 
of the Confederate States, had been executed by the United States authori- 
ties at 2Tew Orleans for having pulled down the United States flag in that 
city before its occupation by the United States forces, and calling for a 
statement of the facts, with a view of retaliation if such an outrage had 



A PROCLAMATION. 



BY THE PEESIDEXT OF THE COXEEDEEATE STATES. 



608 



EEC ALL. 



really been committed under the sanction of the authorities of the United 

States ; 

" And whereas (no answer having been received to said letter), another 
letter was, on the 2d of August last, 1862, addressed by General Lee, under 
my instructions, to General Halleck, renewing the inquiries in relation to 
the execution of the saidMumford, with the information that, in the event 
of not receiving a reply within fifteen days, it would be assumed that the 
fact was true, and was sanctioned by the government of the United States ; 

"And whereas, an answer, dated on the 7th of August last, 1802, was ad- 
dressed to General Lee by General H. W. Halleck, the said general-in-chief of 
the armies of the United States, alleging sufficient cause for failure to make 
early reply to said letter of the 6th of July, asserting that 'no authentic 
information had been received in relation to the execution of Mumford ; but 
measures will be immediately taken to ascertain the facts of the alleged ex- 
ecution,' and promising that General Lee should be duly informed thereof ; 

"And whereas, on the 26th of November last, 1862, another letter was 
addressed, under my instructions, by Robert Ould, Confederate agent for 
the exchange of prisoners, under the cartel between the two governments, 
to Lieutenant-Colonel W. H. Ludlow, agent of the United States under said 
cartel, informing him that the explanation promised in the said letter of 
General Halleck, of 7th of August last, had not yet been received, and 
that if no answer was sent to the government within fifteen days from the 
delivery of this last communication, it would be considered that an answer 
is declined ; 

" And whereas, by a letter dated on the 3d day of the present month of 
December, the said Lieutenant-Colonel Ludlow apprised the said Robert 
Ould that the above recited communication of the 19th of November had 
been received and forwarded to the secretary of war of the United States ; 
and whereas, this last delay of fifteen days allowed for answer has elapsed, 
and no answer has been received ; 

" And whereas, in addition to the tacit admission resulting from the 
above refusal to answer, I have received evidence fully establishing the 
truth of the fact that the said William B. Mumford, a citizen of the Con- 
federacy, was actually and publicly executed, in cold blood, by hanging, 
after the occupation of the city of New Orleans by the forces under Gen- 
eral Benjamin F. Butler, when said Mumford was an unresisting and noL- 
combatant captive, and for no offense even alleged to have been committed 
by him subsequent to the date of the capture of the said city; 

" And whereas, the silence of the government of the United States, and 
its maintaining of said Butler in high office under its authority for many 
months after his commission of an act that can be viewed in no other light 
than as a deliberate murder, as well as of numerous other outrages and 
atrocities hereafter to be mentioned, afford evidence too conclusive that the 



RECALL. 



609 



said government sanctions the conduct of the said Butler, and is deter- 
mined that he shall remain unpunished for these crimes ; 

" Xow. therefore. I, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States 
of America, and in their name, do pronounce and declare the said Benjamin 
F. Butler to be a felon, deserving of capital punishment. I do order that 
he shall no longer be considered or treated simply as a public enemy of 
the Confederate States of America, but as an outlaw and common ene- 
my of mankind, and that, in the event of his capture, the officer in com- 
mand of the capturing force do cause him to be immediately executed by 
hanging. 

" And I do farther order that no commissioned officer of the United 
States, taken captive, shall be released on parole, before exchanged, until 
the said Butler shall have met with due punishment for his crimes. 

" And whereas, the hostilities waged against this Confederacy by the 
forces of the United States, under the command of said Benjamin F. Butler, 
have borne no resemblance to such warfare as is alone permissible by the 
rules of international law or the usages of civilization, but have been char- 
acterized by repeated atrocities and outrages, among the large number of 
which the following may be cited as examples : 

" Peaceful and aged citizens, unresisting captives and non-combatants, 
have been confined at hard labor, with hard chains attached to their limbs, 
and are still so held, in dungeons and fortresses. 

" Others have been submitted to a like degrading punishment for selling 
medicines to the sick soldiers of the Confederacy. 

"The soldiers of the United States have been invited and encouraged in 
general orders to insult and outrage the wives, the mothers, and the sisters 
of our citizens. 

" Helpless women have been torn from their homes, and subjected to sol- 
itary confinement, some in fortresses and prisons, and one especially on an 
island of barren sand, under a tropical sun ; have been fed with loathsome 
rations that have been condemned as unfit for soldiers, and have been ex- 
posed to the vilest insults. 

••Prisoners of war, who surrendered to the naval forces of the United 
States, on agreement that they should be released on parole, have been 
seized and kept in close confinement. 

" Eepeated pretexts have been sought or invented for plundering the 
inhabitants of a captured city, by fines levied and collected under threats 
of imprisoning recusants at hard labor with ball and chain. The entire 
population of New Orleans have been forced to elect between starvation 
by the confiscation of all their property and taking an oath against con- 
science to bear allegiance to the invader of their country. 

''Egress from the city has been refused to those whose fortitude with- 
stood the test, and even to lone and aged women, and to helpless children ; 



610 



RECALL. 



and, after being ejected from their homes and robbed of their property, they 
have been left to starve in the streets or subsist on charity. 

" The slaves have been driven from the plantations in the neighborhood 
of New Orleans until their owners would consent to share their crops with 
the commanding general, his brother, Andrew J. Butler, and other officers ; 
and when such consent had been extorted, the slaves have been restored to 
the plantations, and there compelled to work under the bayonets of the 
guards of United States soldiers. Where that partnership was refused, 
armed expeditions have been sent to the plantations to rob them of every- 
thing that was susceptible of removal. 

" And even slaves, too aged or infirm for work, have, in spite of their 
entreaties, been forced from the homes provided by their owners, and driv- 
en to wander helpless on the highway. 

"By a recent General Order No. 91, the entire property in that part of 
Louisiana west of the Mississippi river has been sequestrated for confisca- 
tion, and officers have been assigned to duty, with orders to gather up and 
collect the personal property, and turn over to the proper officers, upon 
their receipts, such of said property as may be required for the use of the 
United States army ; to collect together all the other personal property and 
bring the same to New Orleans, and cause it to be sold at public auction to 
highest bidders — an order which, if executed, condemns to punishment, 
by starvation, at least a quarter of a million of human beings, of all ages, 
sexes, and conditions, and of which the execution, although forbidden to 
rnihtary officers by the orders of President Lincoln, is in accordance with 
the confiscation law of our enemies, which he has effected to be enforced 
through the agency of civil officials. 

" And, finally, the African slaves have not only been incited to insurrec- 
tion by every license and encouragement, but numbers of them have actu- 
ally been armed for a servile war — a war in its nature far exceeding the 
horrors and most merciless atrocities of savages. 

" And whereas, the officers under command of the said Butler have been, 
in many instances, active and zealous agents in the commission of these 
crimes, and no instance is known of the refusal of any one of them to par- 
ticipate in the outrages above narrated ; 

"And whereas, the president of the United States has, by public and 
official declarations, signified not only his approval of the effort to excite 
servile war within the Confederacy, but his intention to give aid and en- 
couragement thereto, if these independent states shall continue to refuse 
submission to a foreign power after the 1st day of January next, and has 
thus made known that all appeal to the law of nations, the dictates of rea- 
son, and the instincts of humanity would be addressed in vain to our ene- 
mies, and that they can be deterred from the commission of these crimes 
only by the terrors of just retribution ; 



RECALL. 



611 



" Now, therefore, I, Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States 
of America, and acting by their authority, appealing to the Divine Judge 
in attestation that their conduct is not guided by the passion of revenge, 
but that they reluctantly yield to the solemn duty of redressing, by neces- 
sary severity, crimes of which their citizens are the victims, do issue this 
my proclamation, and, by virtue of my authority as commander-in-chief of 
the armies of the Confederate States, do order — 

" First — That all commissioned officers in the command of said Benjamin 
F. Butler be declared not entitled to be considered as soldiers engaged in 
honorable warfare, but as robbers and criminals, deserving death ; and that 
they and each of them be, whenever captured, reserved for execution. 

" Second — That the private soldiers and non-commissioned officers in the 
army of said Butler be considered as only the instruments used for the 
commission of crimes perpetrated by his orders, and not as free agents ; that 
they, therefore, be treated when captured as prisoners of war, with kind- 
ness and humanity, and be sent home on the usual parole that they will in 
no manner aid or serve the United States in any capacity during the con- 
tinuance of this war, unless duly exchanged. . 

" Third — That all negro slaves captured in arms be at once delivered 
over to the executive authorities of the respective states to which they be- 
long, to be dealt with according to the law of said states. 

" Fourth — That the like orders be issued in all cases with respect to the 
commissioned officers of the United States when found serving in company 
with said slaves in insurrection against the authorities of the different states 
of this Confederacy. 

" In testimony whereof, I have signed these presents, and caused the seal 
of the Confederate States of America to be affixed thereto, at the city of 
."Richmond, on the 23d day of December, in the year of. our Lord one thou- 
sand eight hundred and sixty-two. 

"Jeffekson Davis, 

" By the President. 

"J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State." 

All unconscious of this fulmination, General Butler engaged 
passage in an unarmed transport. On the morning of his depart- 
ure, December 24th, the levee was crowded with a concourse of 
people extremely different in their demeanor and their feelings 
from the angry and tumultuous throng which howled defiance at 
him when he landed on the first of May. He spent his last hour 
with Admiral Farragut on board the flag-ship Hartford, endeared 
to both of them by glorious recollections. " Admiral Farragut is 
one of the men I love," the general frequently remarks He had 
26* 



612 



RECALL. 



given the admiral a salute when the news came of his promotion to 
his present nobly-won rank in the naval service, and the admiral, in 
acknowledging the honor done him, had promised to return the 
compliment*, with "interest," on the first opportunity. So, amid 
the thunder of the Hartford's great guns, mingling with that of 
a battery on shore, and the cheers of a great crowd of soldiers 
and citizens, the general and his family waved farewell to New 
Orleans. 

On the voyage home, he passed within six hours sail of the 
Alabama — a fact which derives some interest from such paragraphs 
as the following : 

"Ten Thousand Dollaks Rewabd! — $10,000! — President Davis hav- 
ing proclaimed Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts, to be a felon, deser- 
ving of capital punishment for the deliberate murder of Wm. B. Mumford, 
a citizen of the Confederate States at Xew Orleans ; and having ordered 
that the said Benjamin F. Butler be considered or treated as an outlaw and 
coTt'jT on enemy of mankind, and that, in the eveut of his capture, the offi- 
cer in command of the capturing force do cause him to be immediately ex- 
ecuted by hanging, the undersigned hereby offers a reward of ten thousand 
dollars ($10,000) for the capture and delivery of the said Benjamin F. But- 
ler, dead or alive, to any proper Confederate authority. 

"RlCHAED YEADON. 

" Chaeleston, S. C, January 1." 

" A daughter of South Carolina writes to the Charleston Courier from 
Darlington District : 

" ' I propose to spin the thread to make the cord to execute the order of 
our noble president, Davis, when old Butler is caught, and my daughter 
asks that she may be allowed to adjust it around his neck.' " 

After the departure of General Butler from New Orleans, his sue* 
• cessor gave a fair trial to the policy of conciliation. Its failure was 
immediate, complete, and undeniable. "These southern people," 
remarks an English writer who went to New Orleans with General 
Banks, " with their oriental civilization and institution, cherish 
something of the eastern impression that kindness and conciliation 
imply weakness, originating in a fear of inflicting punishment. 
They hated Butler and feared him ; now the more foolish sort hope 
for a certain amount of impunity to the treason yet latent among 
them." General Banks was obliged to abandon the attempt to win 



AT HOME. 



613 



the enemies of his country by soft words and lenient measures. 
The testimony of notorious and unquestionable facts has shown the 
country, that, in so far as General Banks has adopted the policy of 
his predecessor, his administration of the Department of the Gulf 
has been successful, and that, in so far as he has essentially depart- 
ed from that policy, his administration has been a failure. I had 
collected a great deal of evidence on this point, but as every wit- 
ness tells the same story, and the facts are familiar to most of us, 
I will not increase the magnitude of this too portly volume by de- 
tailing it. The Iron Hand, and that alone, till slavery is every- 
where abolished, will keep down the insolent and remorseless 
faction who have brought such woful and wide-spread ruin upon 
the southern states. Slavery dead, the bitterness of that faction is 
as harmless as a cooing dove. Jefferson Davis, representing free 
Mississippi, would be innoxious in the senate itself. To kill 
slavery is to extract the poison from the fangs of all those deadly 
foes of their country and their kind. Till that is done, there is no 
safety but in the iron rule. 



CHAPTER XXXHI. 

AT HOME. 

Am) why was he recalled from the Department of the Gulf ? It 
was natural that the general himself should feel some curiosity 
upon this subject. His curiosity has not been gratified. 

Upon reaching New York, he found a letter from the president, 
requesting his presence at Washington. He was received by all 
the members of the government with the cordiality and considera- 
tion due to his eminent services. He asked the president the rea- 
son of his recall, and the president referred him to the secretary of 
state and the secretary of war, who, he said, had recommended the 
measure. The general then turned to Mr. Stanton. Mr. Stanton 
replied, that the reason was one which did not imply, on the part 



614 



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of the government, any want of confidence in his honor as a man, 
or in his ability as a commander. 

" Well," said the general, " you have now told me what I was 
not recalled for. I now ask you to tell me what I was recalled for." 

" You and I," answered Mr. Stanton, laughing, " are both law- 
yers, and it is of no use you're filing a bill of discovery upon me, 
for I sha'n't tell you." 

And that is all the explanation which the government has vouch- 
safed to him. We are justified, however, in concluding, that ht, 
was recalled for the purpose of conciliating the French government, 
which had expressed disapproval of his course toward the " foreign 
neutrals" of Louisiana. 

The question then occurs : Has the French government been con- 
ciliated ? Has the policy of conciliation been successful ? Has it 
done any good to deprive the country of the services of one of its 
ablest administrators ? The recent scenes in the harbor of Brest 
appear to answer the question. 

General Butler's claim to be the senior major-general chanced to 
become a subject of conversation at the White House on this oc- 
casion. Without having bestowed much thought upon the matter, 
he had innocently taken it for granted that a major-general, who 
had won his rank and received his commission several weeks before 
any other major-general had been appointed, must necessarily be 
the senior major-general. " The president," as he afterward re- 
marked in the formal statement of his claim, requested by the sec- 
retary of war, " has power to do many things ; but it has been said 
that even ' an act of parliament could not make one's uncle his aunt.' 
How then can the president make a junior officer a senior officer in 
the same grade ? I grant that the president can put the junior in 
command of the senior, but it took an act of congress to enable the 
president to do that. But there is no act of congress which has or 
can settle seniority of rank otherwise than as the almanac, taking 
note of the lapse of time, has settled it." 

The president said that he knew nothing about the dates of the 
several commissions. 

" I only know," said he, " that I gave you your commission the 
first of anybody." 

The board of officers, to whom the question was referred, decided 
that the president was not bound by the almanac in dating com 



\ 



AT HOME. 



61£ 



missions, and could make a junior senior if he pleased. Conse- 
quently, General McClellan, General Fremont, General Dix, and 
General Banks, all of whom were appointed many weeks after Gen- 
eral Butler, take rank before him. This is a small matter, hardly 
worth mentioning. It is merely one instance more of the systematic 
snubbing with which one of the very few men of first-rate executive 
ability in the public service has been rewarded. 

In conversing with the president upon the negro question, the 
general said that if it was considered necessary to abolitionize the 
whole army, it was only necessary to give each corps a turn of ser- 
vice in the extreme south, where, as General Phelps remarked, the 
institution exists " in all its pride and gloom." 

It is worthy of note, that the only members of the diplomatic 
corps at Washington, who called upon the general, were the Rus- 
sian minister and the representative of the free city of Bremen. 
The friends and the foes of the United States, also the " neutral" 
oowers, appear to have an instinctive perception of the fact, that 
General Butler is the Union Cause incarnate. 

The people, I need not say, gave the returning general a recep- 
tion that left no doubt in his mind that his labors in the southwest 
were understood and appreciated by his fellow-citizens. Baltimore, 
Washington, New York, Boston, Lowell, Philadelphia, Harrisburgh, 
and Portland, have each received him with every circumstance 
which could enhance the dignity or the eclat of an honorable wel- 
come. 

Or, to use the language of the Richmond Examiner : 
" After inflicting innumerable tortures upon an innocent and un- 
armed people ; after outraging the sensibilities of civilized humanity 
by his brutal treatment of women and children ; after placing bayo- 
nets in the hands of slaves ; after peculation the most prodigious, 
and lies the most infamous, he returns, reeking with crime, to his 
own people, and they receive him with acclamations of joy in a 
manner that befits him and becomes themselves. Nothing is out 
of keeping ; his whole career and its rewards are strictly artistic in 
conception and in execution. He was a thief A sword that he had 
stolen from a woman — the niece of the brave Twiggs — was pre- 
sented to him as a reward of valor. He had violated the laws of 
God and man. The law-makers of the United States voted him 
thanks, and the preachers -of the Yankee gospel of blood came to 



616 



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him and worshiped him. He had broken into the safes and strong 
boxes of merchants. The New York Chamber of Commerce gave 
him a dinner. He had insulted women. Things in female attire 
lavished harlot smiles upon him. He was a murderer, and a nation 
of assassins have deified him. He is at this time the representative 
man of a people lost to all shame, to all humanity, all honor, all 
virtue, all manhood. Cowards by nature, thieves upon principle, 
and assassins at heart, it would be marvelous, indeed, if the people 
of the North refused to render homage to Benjamin Butler — the 
beastliest, bloodiest poltroon and pickpocket the world ever saw." 

Or, to borrow the words of the New York World: 

" The warm applause with which he was greeted by a great pub 
lie assembly in this Christian city, is a phenomenon as shocking to a 
cultivated moral sense as the mode of propagating religion in ages 
when the rack and the stake were approved means of grace. This 
discreditable applause is a new testimony to the barbarizing effects 
of civil war.^ It exemplifies the rude logic of violent passions, 
which, assuming a sacred end for its premises, infers that any 
means are justifiable for its attainment.^ 

Or we might quote the comments of the London Times, since 
there is the most perfect accord on this subject between rebels, 
peace democrats and foreign neutrals. 

Perhaps, however, the reader may incline to the opinion of the 
hundred merchants of New York, as expressed in their letter invi- 
ting the general to a public dinner : 

" They share with you the conviction that there is no middle or 
neutral ground between loyalty and treason ; that traitors against 
the government forfeit all rights of protection and of property; 
that those who persist in armed rebellion, or aid it less openly but 
not less effectively, must be put down and kept down by the strong 
hand of power and by the use of all rightful means, and that so far 
as may be, the sufferings of the poor and misguided, caused by the 
rebellion, should be visited upon the authors of their calamities. 
We have seen, with approbation, that in applying these principles, 
amidst the peculiar difficulties and embarrassments incident to 
your administration in your recent command, you have had the 
sagacity to devise, the will to execute, and the courage to enforce 
the measures which they demanded, and we rejoice at the suc- 
cess which has vindicated the wisdom and the justice of your offi 



AT HOME. 



617 



cial course. In thus congratulating you upon these results, we 
believe that we express the feeling of all those who most earn- 
estly desire the speedy restoration of the Union in its full integrity 
and power." 

The public dinner was declined. 1,4 1 too well know," replied the 
general, "the revulsion of feeling with which the soldier in the 
field, occupying the trenches, pacing the sentinel's weary path in 
the "blazing heat, or watching from his cold bivouac the stars shut 
out by the drenching cloud, hears of feasting and merry-making at 
home by those who ought to bear his hardships with him, and the 
bitterness with which he speaks of those who, thus engaged, are 
wearing his uniform. Upon the scorching sand, and under the 
brain-trying sun of the gulf coast, I have too much shared that 
feeling to add one pang, however slight, to the discomfort which 
my fellow-soldiers suffer, doing the duties of the camp and field, by 
my own act, while separated momentarily from them by the exi- 
gencies of the public service." 

"Not the less did the city of New York respond to the sentiments 
of the merchants' letter. The scene at the Academy of Music, on 
the evening of the 2d of April, 1863, when General Butler advanced 
to the front of the stage, will never be forgotten by the youngest 
person who witnessed it. The house was crowded to the remotest 
standing-place of the amphitheater. The immense stage was filled 
with the citizens of whom Xew York is proudest. TThen the gen- 
eral appeared, the audience sprang to their feet, and gave, not three 
cheers, nor three times three and one cheer more, but a unanimous, 
long-sustained roar of cheers, with a universal waving of hats and 
nandker chiefs. Several minutes elapsed before silence was restored. 
General Butler spoke for two hours, interrupted at every other 
sentence with enthusiastic applause. At Boston, in old Faneuil 
Hall, he could not escape from the crowd till he had shaken three 
thousand hands. 

Since the return of General Butler to the North, he has, on all 
occasions, public and private, given to the administration a most 
hearty and unwavering support. A man less magnanimous, or less 
patriotic, would have been tempted to, at least, a silent resentment 
at the censure of his conduct implied in his sudden and unexplained 
recall, and the repeated refusal of the government to comply with 
the desire expressed on so many occasions for his employment in 



618 



AT HOME. 



the cabinet and in the field. On the contrary, he has used the 
whole of his influence in sustaining the government. 

" The present government," he said, in his speech of April 2d, at 
New York, " was not the government of my choice. I did not 
vote for it, nor for any part of it ; but it is the government of my 
country ; it is the only organ by which I can exert the force of the 
country to protect its integrity ; and as long as I believe that gov- 
ernment to be honestly administered, I will throw a mantle over any 
mistakes that I may think it has made, and support k heartily, with 
hand and purse, so help me God ! I have no loyalty to any man 
or men. My loyalty is to the government ; and it makes no differ- 
ence to me who the people have chosen to administer the govern- 
ment. So long as the choice has been constitutionally made, and 
the persons so chosen hold their places and powers, I am a traitor 
and a false man if I falter in my support. This is what I under- 
stand to be loyalty to a government." 

Perhaps a few sentences and paragraphs from General Butler's 
recent speeches may be in place here, to indicate his present opin- 
ions upon the momentous issues upon which the people are called, 
from time to time, to express their judgment. 



SLAVEET. 

" I think 1 may say that the principal members of my staff, and the prom- 
inent officers of my regiments, without any exception, went out to New 
Orleans hunker democrats of the hunkerest sort ; for it wav- but natural 
that I should draw around me those whose views were similai to my own; 
and every individual of the number has come to precisely the same belief 
on the question of slavery, as I put forth in my farewell address to the peo- 
ple of New Orleans. This change came about from seeing whac all of them 
saw, day by day. In this war the entire property of the South is against 
us, because almost the entire property of the South is bound up in that in- 
stitution. This is a well-known fact, probably ; but I did not become fully 
aware of it until I had spent some time in New Orleans. The South has 
$163,000,000 of taxable property in slaves, and $163,000,000 in all other 
kinds of property. And this was the cause why the merchants of New 
Orleans had not remained loyal. They found themselves ruined- -all their 
property being loaned upon planters' notes, and mortgages upon plantations 
and slaves, all of which property is now worthless. Again I learned, what 
I did not know before, that this is not a rebellion against us, but simply a 
rebellion to perpetuate power in the hands of a few slave-holders. At first 



AT HOME. 



619 



I did not believe that slavery was the cause of the rebellion, but attributed 
it to Davis, Slidell, and others, who had brought it about to make political 
triumphs by which to regain their former ascendency. The rebellion is 
against the humble and poorer classes ; and there were in the South large 
numbers of secret societies dealing in cabalistic signs, organized for the pur- 
pose of perpetuating the power of the rich over the poor. It was feared 
that these common people would come into power, and that three or four 
hundred thousand men could not hold out against eight millions. The first 
movement of these men w*as to make land the basis of political power, and 
that was not enough, for land could not be owned by many persons. Then 
they annexed land to slaves, and divided the property into movable and 
immovable. 

"I am not generally accused of being a humanitarian — at least, not by 
my southern friends. When I saw the utter demoralization of the people, 
resulting from slavery, it struck me that it was an institution which should 
be thrust out of the Union. I had, on reading Mrs. Stowe's book — Uncle 
Tom's Cabin — believed it to be an overdrawn, highly-wrought picture of 
southern life ; but I have seen with my own eyes, and heard with my own 
ears, many things which go beyond her book, as much as her book does 
beyond an ordinary school-girl's novel. ***** 

" Yes, no right-minded man could be sent to New Orleans without re- 
turning an unconditional anti-slavery man, even though the roof of the 
houses were not taken off, and the full extent of the corruption exposed. 

" The war can only be successfully prosecuted by the destruction of 
slavery, which was made the corner-stone of the confederacy. This is the 
second time in the history of the world that a rebellion of property -holders 
against the lower classes and against the government was ever carried on. 
The Hungarian rebellion was one of that kind, and that failed, as must every 
rebellion of men of property against government and against the rights of 
the many. One of the greatest arguments which I can find against slavery 
is the demoralizing influences it exerts upon the lower white classes, who 
were brought into secession by the hundred because they ignorantly sup 
posed that great wrong was to be done them by the Lincoln government, 
as they termed it, if the North succeeded. Therefore, if you meet an old 
hunker democrat, and send him for sixty days to New Orleans, and he 
comes back a hunker still, he is merely incorrigible. There is one thing 
about the president's edict of emancipation to which I would call atten- 
tion. In Louisiana he had excepted from freedom about eighty-seven 
thousand slaves. These comprise all the negroes held in the Lafourche 
district, who have been emancipated already for some time under the law 
which frees slaves taken in rebellious territory by our armies. Others of 
these negroes had been freed by the proclamation of September, which 
declared all slaves to be free whose owners should be in arms on the first 



620 



AT HOME. 



of January. The slaves of Frenchmen were free because the Code Civile 
expressly prohibits a Frenchman from holding slaves, and, by the 7th and 
8th Victoria, every Englishman holding slaves subjects himself to a pen- 
alty of $500 for each. Now, take the negroes of secessionists, French- 
men and Englishmen out of the eighty-seven thousand, and. the number is 
reduced to an infinitesimal portion of those excepted. This fact came to 
my .Knowledge from having required every inhabitant iu the city to register 
his nationality. After all these names had been fairly registered, I ex- 
plained these laws to the English and French consuls, and thus replied to 
demands ^hich had been made by English and French residents of Loui 
siana upon the government for slaves alleged to have been seized."* 

THE WAE DEBT. 

"A question has been a thousand times asked me since I arrived 
home, how is this great war debt to be paid ? That speaks to the material 
interests. How can we ever be able to pay this war debt ? Who can pay 
it ? Who shall pay it ? Shall we tax the coming generations ? Shall we 
overtax ourselves ? For one — and I speak as a citizen to citizens — I think 
I can see clearly a way in which this great expense can be paid by those 
who ought to pay it, and be borne by those who ought to bear it. ( Let 
us bring the South into subjection to the Union. We have offered them 
equality. If they choose it, let them have it. But, at all events, they 
must come under the power of the Union. And when once this war is 
closed by that subjugation, if you please, if necessary, then the increased 
productions of the great staples of the South, cotton and tobacco — with 
which we ought, and can, and shall supply the world — this increased pro- 
duction, by the immigration of white men into the South, where labor shall 
be honorable as it is here, will pay the debt. With the millions of hogs- 
heads of the one, and the millions of bales of the other, and with a 
proper internal tax, which shall be paid by England and France, who have 
largely caused this mischief, this debt will be paid. Without stopping to 
be didactic or to discuss principles here, let us examine this matter for a 
moment. They are willing to pay fifty and sixty cents a pound for cotton ; 
the past has demonstrated that even by the uneconomical use of slave labor, 
it can be profitably raised — ay, profitably beyond all conception of agri- 
cultural profit here — at ten cents a pound. A simple impost of ten cents 
a pound, which will increase it to twenty cents only, will pay the interest of a 
war debt double what it is to-day. And that cotton can be more profitably 
raised under free labor than under slave labor, no man who has examined 
the subject doubts. By the imposition of this tax those men who fitted 
out the Alabama and sent her forth to prey upon our commerce, will be 

* Speech at Fifth Avenue Hotel New York, Jan. S, 1S63. 




AT HOME. 



621 



compelled by the laws of trade and the laws of nations to pay for the mis- 
chief they have done. So that when we look around in this country, 
which has just begun to put forth her strength, because no country has 
ever come to her full strength until her institutions have proved themselves 
strong enough to govern the country against the will, even the voluntary 
will of the people — when this government, which has now demonstrated 
itself to be the strongest government in the world, puts forth her strength 
as to men, and when this country of ours, richer and more abundant in its 
harvests and in its productions than any other country on earth, puts forth 
her riches, we have a strength in men, we have an amount in money, to 
battle the world for liberty, and for the freedom to do, in the borders of 
the United States and on the continent of America, that which God, when 
he sent us forth as a missionary nation, intended we should do. So, allow 
me to return your words of congratulation and your words of welcome, 
with words of good cheer. Be of good cheer ! God gave us this conti- 
nent to civilize and to free, as an example to the nations of the earth ; and 
if He has struck as in His wrath, because we have halted in our work, let 
us begin again ami go on, not doubting that we shall have His blessing to the 
end. Be, therefore, I say, of good cheer ; there can be no doubt of this 
issue. We feel the struggle ; we feel what it costs to carry on this war. 
Go with me to Louisiana — go with me to the South, and you shall see 
what it coots our enemies to carry on this war ; and you will have no 
doubt, as I have none, of the result of this unhappy strife, out of which 
the nation. sb&ll come stronger, better, purified, North and South — better 
than ever betor«."* 

NO DANGEE EEOM THE AEMT. 

"Thero lever has been any division of sentiment in the army itself. 
They have always been for the Union unconditionally, for the government 
and the l ws at any and all times. And who are this army ? Are they 
men diffident from us? Not at all. I see some here that have come back 
from thj army, and are now waiting to recover their health to go back and 
join $i> o army. Are they to be any different on the banks of the Potomac 
Or in tl d marshes of Louisiana, or struggling with the turbid current of the 
Missis? ppi than they are here? Are our sons, our brothers, to have differ- 
ent t) jughts and different feelings from us, simply because to-day they 
weai olue and to-morrow they wear black, or to-day they wear black and 
to-morrow they wear blue ? Not at all. They are from us, they are of us, 
tb<»y are with us. The same love of liberty, ay, and you will pardon me 
for saying it, a little more love for the Union, have caused them to go out 
than has actuated those who have stayed behind. The same desire to 



* Speech at Boston, Jan. 13, 1863. 



G22 



AT HOME. 



see the constitution restored has sent them out that animates us , the same 
love of good government, the same faith in this great experiment of free- 
dom and free government that actuates us actuates them, and there need be 
no trouble, it seems to me, in the mind of any man upon the question of 
what is the army to do. There need be no fears. I have seen men, too, 
good, virtuous, candid, upright, patriotic men, who seem to feel this great 
increase of the army to be somewhat dangerous to our liberties. Is the 
army to take away their own liberties ? is the army to destroy their own 
country ? is the army to do anything that patriotic men won't do ? Oh, 
no ; they answer with universal accord upon that subject. Then where is 
the danger men see ? Why, in the olden time, at the head of large armies, 
some ambitious man, some ambitious military leader, gets the control of 
the army and destroys the liberty of the country ; but the difficulty is, the 
examples of nations in the old world are by no means analogies for this. 
No general of the old world ever commanded such an army ; no general of 
the old world ever had such a country ; no general of the old world ever 
had such a government to fight for, to fight with, to fight under, or will 
have ever and for ever ; and no general of the old world, no general thus 
far on the face of the earth ever was in a country, where, by elevating 
his country first, last, and all the time, he might more surely elevate him- 
self. But we do not depend upon either the patriotism, or the ability, or 
the prudence, or the courage of any one man ; we depend upon the cour- 
age, the patriotism, and the intelligence of this half million of men in the 
army who know that the place to regulate government affairs is in the bal- 
lot-box, and who, as long as they can get matters regulated, and can have 
fair play through the ballot-box, will go home and be much more ready to 
use the ballot-box than the cartridge-box. 

* "Therefore, I say to you, sir, let no man have fear on this subject. 
There are no better friends of free institutions, there are no more intelli- 
gent, no truer men and citizens at home and in peace than in the army of 
the United States."* 

EECONSTETJOTION. 

" I am not for the Union as it was. I have the honor to say, as a democrat, 
and an Andrew Jackson democrat, I am not for the Union to be again as it 
was. Understand me, I was for the Union as it was, because I saw, or 
thought I saw, the troubles in the future which have burst upon us ; but 
having undergone those troubles, having spent all this blood and this 
treasure, I do not mean to go back again and be cheek to jole, as I was 
before with South Carolina, if I can help it. Mark me now ; let no man 
misunderstand me ; and I repeat, lest I may be misunderstood (for there are 
none so difficult to understand as those that don't want to) — mark me 



* Speech at Boston, April, 1S6& 



AT HOME. 



623 



again, 1 say, I do not mean to give up a single inch of the soil of South 
Carolina. If I had been living at that time, and had the position, the will, 
and the ability, I would have dealt with South Carolina as Jackson did, and 
kept her in the Union at all hazards ; but now she has gone out, and I will 
take care that when she comes in again she will come in better behaved ; 
that she shall no longer be the fire-brand of the Union, ay, that she shall en- 
joy what her people never yet enjoyed, the blessings of a republican form 
of government. And, therefore, in that view I am not for the reconstruc- 
tion of the Union as it was. I have spent treasure and blood enough upon 
it, in conjunction with my fellow-citizens, to make it a little better, and I 
think we can have a better Union. It was good enough if it had been let 
alone. The old house was good enough for me, but the South pulled it 
down, and I propose, when we build it up, to build it up with all the 
modern improvements. Another one of the logical sequences, it seems to 
me, that follow inexorably, and is not to be shunned, from the proposition 
that we are dealing with alien enemies, what is our duty with regard to the 
confiscation of their property ? And that would seem to me to be very 
easy of settlement under the constitution, and without any discussion, if 
my first proposition is right. Hasn't it been held from the beginning of the 
world down to this day, from the time the Israelites took possession of the 
land of Canaan, which they got from alien enemies, hasn't it been held that 
the whole of the property of those alien enemies belongs to the conqueror, 
and that it has been at his mercy and his clemency what should be done 
with, it ? And for one, I would take it and give to the loyal man, who was 
^yal from the heart, at the South, enough to make him as well as he was 
before, and I would take the balance of it and distribute it among the vol- 
unteer soldiers who have gone forth in the service of their country; and so 
far as I know them, if we should settle South Carolina with them, in the 
course of a few years I should be quite willing to receive her back into the 
Union."* 

ABMING THE STEGBOES. 

"If these men are alien enemies, is there any objection that you know of, 
and if so state it, to our arming one portion of that foreign country against the 
other, while they are fighting us ? Suppose we were at war with England, 
who here would get up in New York and say we must not arm the Irish, 
lest they should hurt some Englishman? Well, at one time, not very far 
gone, all those Englishmen were our grandfathers' brothers. Either they 
or we erred ; but we are now separate nations, arising out of the contest. 
So again I say, if you will look carefully you will see that there can be no 
objection for another reason. There is no law, either of war or of inter- 
national law, or law of governmental action that I know of, which prevents 

* Speech at New York, April 2, 1863. 



624 



AT HOME. 



a country arming any portion of its citizens or its subjects for the defense 
of that portion, or of any other, and they become (if they do not take part 
with those rebels) simply onr citizens, residing upon our territory, which at 
the present hour is usurped by our enemies. At this moment, and in the 
waning hour, I do not propose to discuss, more than to hint at these various 
subjects. But there is one question that I have been so often asked, that I 
want to make an answer to, once for all, and when I have answered it to 
everybody, nobody will ask me again, and that is this (and most frequently 
am I asked that question by my old democratic friends) : ' Why. General 
Butler, what is your experience ? Will the negroes fight ?' To that I have 
to answer, that upon that subject I have no personal experience. I left the 
Department of the Gulf before they were fairly brought into action ; but 
they did fight under Jackson at Chalmette. More than that. I will bring in 
some other man to answer that question. Let Napoleon III. answer it, 
who has hired them to do what the veterans of the Crimea can not do — to 
whip the Mexicans. I will answer it in another form. Let the veterans 
of Napoleon the First, under his brother-in-law, Le Clerc, who were whipped 
out of St. Domingo by them, tell whether they will fight or not. I will ask 
you to remember it in another form still. "What has been the demoral- 
izing effect upon them as a race by their contact with the white man, I 
know not ; but I can not forget that they and their fathers would not hav» 
been slaves except they were captives of war in their own countries, in hand 
to hand fights among the several chiefs, and were sold into slavery because 
they were captives in war. They would fight at some time, and if you 
want to know any more about it, I can only advise you to try them."* 

THE QUESTION BEFOEE US. 

44 No Union man wants to abrogate the old constitution. It is good 
enough. The only question is, how can we take back an absconding mem- 
ber of the firm under the old articles of agreement." f 

It has been mentioned in a previous chapter that, at the time of 
the seizure of Mason and Slidell, General Butler was of opinion 
that they ought not to be given up. It is proper to record here, that 
his more mature opinion, as expressed in his speech of April 2d, 
1863, is that "we acted wisely at that time in not getting into 
serious trouble with England." At the same time, he avowed the 
conviction that the United States ought not to continue to hold 
friendly relations with a power in practical alliance with the rebeJ 

* Speech at New York. April 2. 1S6S. 
+ Speech at Harrisburgh, September ,1863 



SUMMABY. 



government. He advised a declaration of non-intercourse with 
England. 

" England told us what to do when we took Mason and Slidell, 
and she thought there was a likelihood to be a war. She 
stopped exportation of those articles which she thought we 
wanted, and which she had allowed to be exported before. Let 
us do the same thing. Let us proclaim non-intercourse, so that 
no ounce of food from the United States shall ever by any accident 
get into an Englishman's mouth until this rebellion ceases. I say 
again, let us proclaim non-intercourse, so that no ounce of food shall 
by any accident get into an Englishman's mouth until these piracies 
are stopped. That we have a right to do ; and when we ever do 
do it, my word for it, they will find out where these vessels are 
going to, and they will write to the Emperor of China." 



CHAPTER XXXV 

SUMMARY 

The speciality of General Butler is this : He is a great achiever. 
He is the victorious kind of man. He is that combination of qual- 
ities and powers which is most potent in bringing things to pass. 
Upon reviewing his life, we find that he has been signally successful 
in the undertakings which have seriously tasked his powers. 

A good example of his ready adaptation of means to ends, has 
just been related to me by one of his legal friends. A wealthy 
corporation in N"ew England refused to pay for a bridge, on the 
ground that the contractor had been a few days behind the stipu- 
lated time in completing it. General Butler was retained on behalf 
of the contractor. Aware that he really had no case, though the 
delay in finishing the bridge was abundantly excusable, he brought 
the cause to the bar of public opinion. In other words, he told 
the story to every man and group of men whom chance threw in 
his way. He caused endless paragraphs upon the subject to be in- 
serted in the newspapers. The bridge was justly commended as a 
most admirable piece of work, and remarks were appended upon 



626 



SUMMARY. 



the soullessness of a corporation, which could avail itself of the 
letter of a contract to deprive a fellow-citizen of the reward of his 
labors. In a word, he enlisted the feelings and the judgment of 
the whole community on the side of the contractor, and thus 
shamed the corporation into a compromise. You may call this, if 
you please, an illegitimate mode of proceeding for a learned advo- 
cate. It remains true, nevertheless, that the plan adopted answered 
the end proposed, and that the end proposed was justice. 

It may be profitable to inquire what is the secret of General 
Butler's success. 

Brains. That is a great part of the secret. This man has under- 
stood the matter. He has been able to grasp the situation at all 
times, and to know what the situation required at all times. From 
the hour when he shook hands with Jefferson Davis, in December, 
I860, to the present moment, he has never been groping in the 
dark, or feeling his way to a policy. And his opinion, generally 
scouted at the moment, has always been justified by the progress 
of events. He was right in getting Massachusetts ready to march. 
He took the right road to Washington. He was right in regard- 
ing Fortress Monroe as the base against Richmond. The flash of 
inspiration which pronounced the negroes contraband of war, was 
right. Each step in the progress of his mind upon the negro ques- 
tion was right at the time and in the circumstances. That single 
suggestion of a board to decide upon the fitness of officers, was 
worth all he has received from the government. His order, mak- 
ing officers pay for the pillage committed by their men, was another 
masterly stroke. Better still, perhaps, it would be to make the 
whole regiment responsible — privates as well as officers. At New 
Orleans, he was magnificently right, both in theory and in practice. 
Every day brought forth some new proof of the fertility of his 
mind — of his genius for governing. That policy of isolating, crip- 
pling, and destroying the malignants, and of raising in the scale of 
being the laboring multitude, white, black, or yellow, is the only 
policy which can ever make the country a nation, homogeneous, 
united, powerful and free. No man has, no man can, point out an- 
other path to permanent reconstruction. To dethrone the false king, 
Minority, and to crown in his stead the true king, Majority — that 
was the scheme attempted in Louisiana. But one thing is wanting 
to its complete success — the total abolition of slavery, which con- 



\ 



SUMMARY. 



stitutes the power of the ruling faction, and keeps in heathenisi 
bondage every poor man in the South, whatever his color. 

General Butler, on the other hand, is no dreamer or theorizer. 
Dreamers and theorizers are good and helpful ; but he is not one 
of them. His forte is to devise expedients to meet a new state of 
things, or to effect a special purpose. He is singularly happy in 
framing a measure, on the spur of the moment, which precisely 
answers the end proposed, and works good in many directions not 
specially contemplated. His plan for feeding the poor of New 
Orleans, for example, besides effecting the main purpose of saving 
thousands from starvation, brought home to the authors of their 
ruin a part of the ill-consequences of their conduct, and chimed 
in with his general policy of suppressing one class and raising 
another. 

Brains are the great secret. He is endowed with a large, 
healthy, active, instructed, experienced brain — Heaven's best gift, 
and the medium through which all other good gifts are given. 

Courage, will, firmness, nerve — call it what you will — General 
Butler has it. He has not been called to face the leaden rain and 
iron hail of battle ; but he has exhibited on every occasion the 
courage which the occasion required. He has shown a singular 
insensibility to the phantoms which play so important a part in 
war. He has shown the courage to go forward and meet the 
imaginary danger, as well as the real. He has the courage of 
opinion — so rare in a republic where public men all want the favor 
of the many. He dares accept the remote consequences of a 
policy. He dares to take the responsibility. He dares to incur 
obloquy. He dares to tell the truth, and all the truth. I venture to 
declare, that in the many thousand pages of his writings as an 
officer of the government, there is not one intentional misstatement 
or unfair suppression. Falsehood is the natural resort of timidity. 
A brave man does not lie, and need not. 

Honesty. With opportunities of irregular gain, such as no other 
man has had since the days of Warren Hastings, his hands are 
spotless. He could have made a safe half million by a wink ; and, 
if he had done so, he would have come home with a peculiar and 
marked reputation for integrity ; because then he would have had 
an interest to create such a reputation, and could not have in- 
dulged the noble carelessness with regard to his good name which 
27 



628 



SUilAIAEY. 



is the privilege of a man strong in conscious rectitude. The fact 
that so able a man is accused of corruption, is itself a kind of proof 
of his honesty. 

Humor. The happy word is part of the art of governing. There 
is apt to be a fund of humor in good victorious men, which enables 
them to get the laugh of mankind on their side. Would Lord Palm- 
er ston ever have been premier of England without his jokes, or Mr. 
Lincoln president of the United States unless he had first overspread 
acres of prairie mass-meetings with a grin ? The point, humor and 
vivacity of General Butler's utterances have been an element of his 
success in the service of his country. 

Faith. " After our return to the North," says one of the gener- 
al's staff, " an ex-mayor of Chicago was introduced to the general at 
the St. Nicholas Hotel in New York. It was just at a time when 
our cause looked very gloomy. The mayor was evidently much 
depressed by the indications of national misfortune, and in a tone 
of great despondency asked the general — 

" ' Do you believe we shall ever get through this war successfully V 

" ' Yes, sir,' the general answered, very decidedly. 

" ' "Well, but how ?' asked the mayor. 

" 4 God knows, I don't ; but I know He does, so I am satisfied,' 
the general replied.* I have often heard him reply thus to anxious 
questioners. 

" ' We ought to march through,' he once said ; ' but we shan't ; 
I'm afraid we shall only tumble through. No matter ; we shall 
get through somehow.' " 

Humanity. The papers relating to our general's military career 
teem with evidence that he is a kind, considerate man. He gov- 
erned his soldiers strictly, but always so as to promote their best 
interests. He was lenient and forgiving toward offenses of inad- 
vertence, or such as betrayed only df weakness or infirmity of 
nature. He was generous to the poor. He was solicitous to be- 
stow honor where it was due. He was ingenious in devising ways 
of procuring promotion to deserving officers. He sympathized' 
with the anxiety of parents for their sons in the army, and assuaged 
many a bleeding heart by the kind thoughtfulness with which ill 
news was broken to them. 

Courtesy. The etiquette of his position was most punctiliously 

* AltcvrMe M&ntkly, July, 1S63. 



SUMMAKY. 



629 



observed ; not more so toward admirals and general officers than 
boy lieutenants and private soldiers. To the enemies of his country- 
he could be a roaring lion or a growling bear. The men of his 
command and the loyal citizens of his department enjoyed the 
satisfaction of knowing that their general was a gentleman. No ' 
littleness toward other commanders ; only gratitude and admiration 
for the Farraguts, the Grants, the Rosecranses, the Meades, and all 
the other heroes of the war. Consideration, too, for the many able 
and well-intentioned men who have been less successful. 

Patriotism. No man should be praised for loving his country, 
any more than for loving his mother. If the country is lost, we 
are all lost. If the country is disgraced, we all hang our heads in 
shame. To love one's country is a part of our natural and proper 
self-love. But if there is one man who has gone along more en- 
tirely than he with his country in this great struggle to preserve 
its life ; if there is one man who has taken the great cause more 
deeply to heart, or striven with a purer aim to do his part in the 
mighty and holy work, he must, indeed, be the very model of a 
pure and 1 burning patriot. * Let none of us, however, claim for him- 
self or for another any pre-eminence in patriotism. In this alone 
we are all agreed, that if it takes as long to restore the country as 
it took the Spaniards to expel the Moors from Spain (800 years), 
the work is to be done. If the treasury is bankrupt. »no matter, it 
is to be done. If we have to make twenty, truces, still it is to be 
done. If we pause, it will be only to renew the strife as soon as 
we have taken breath. 

• Brains without courage may be a delusion and a snare. To 
have courage without brains is to be a Imman bull-dog. Brains 
and valor without experience human affairs, without knowledge 
of 'the world; ^anc^ jnankind, will often lead a man .far %^fcray. 

^ ^Brains, valor and experience united, still require, the\honest heart, 
the lofty aim. And even,all these, are ineffective^ in times like these, 

■ unless there is also an enormous capacity for labor. But when a 
man presents himself to view who possesses a fertile genius, cour- 
age, knowledge, experience, patriotism and honesty, with a sound- 
ness of bodily constitution that gives him the complete use of all his 
powers, a> country must be rich indeed in able men, if it can afford, 
at a time of public danger, to dispense with his services. 



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APPENDIX I. 



The following letters, which were received too late for use in the proper 
place, relate, in a highly interesting manner, the perilous voyage of General 
Butler and a portion of his command from Fortress Monroe to Ship Island, 
and contain also a graphic description of the island itself. They are from 
the pen of Mrs. Butlee, the brave and gifted wife of the commanding 
General, his companion during all the period of his services in the field, 
from Annapolis to New Orleans. She was the only lady who accompanied 
the expedition. The courage which she displayed in moments of imminent 
danger rendered her an effective aid to the officers, and a source of comfort 
and confidence to the troops. We cannot but regret, on reading these 
letters, that the indisposition and languor incident to a residence in New 
Orleans prevented Mrs. Butler from 'relating some of the events of her stay 
there, in the same vividly descriptive manner. It should be added, perhaps., 
that these letters are now inserted at the request of General Butler, who 
wished that his children should have, by-and-by, such a memento of the 
courage and devotion of their mother. 



"Deae H. : — We came on board at eleven o'clock. A steam-tug took 
us from the boat that brought us to Fortress Monroe. I found a way to 
the top of the tug ; from that they threw a plank to the Mississippi, and, 
led by the captain, came safely on board without confusion. The others 
came up the sides of the ship, by ladders and ropes. Such a struggle for 
places 1 Those that sailed from Boston occupied more room than could be 
yielded, after the new arrivals. Sixteen hundred people to be stowed 
away somewhere. General Butler, with the staff, began giving orders, 
and in two or three hours it became very quiet ; every one assigned his 
place b} right of rank. Dinner served at two, plainly but very well. Con- 
densed water; I do not like it. General Butler and staff go on shore to 
dine with General Wool. It is expected we shall be off to-night ; in the 
mean time, I should be glad of a place to warm my feet. 



I. 



Foeteess Moneoe, February 25, 1862, 
" On loard the Mississippi. 




632 



APPENDIX. 



"Poet Royal. 

''How much of agonizing suspense, of despairing misery, has been 
crowded into this week ! We are lying here now in safety, drawn up at 
the wharf, and the naval people are at work to repair the ship. They say 
it can be done directly, but that does not seem so certain. The pumps 
they have made, and are trying this morning, are found too short ; so the 
work is to be done over again. We have been here two nights, and noth- 
ing done yet that gives promise of speedy sailing. The officers are impa- 
tient under this delay, for we believe the fleet to be ready for the attack ; 
perhaps, ev.n now, it has gone from Ship Island, to enter the Mississippi; 
or our friends who, we hear, are at Island Number 10, may go down the 
river and take New Orleans. Then will their brows be bound with oak, 
while we lie here, ignobly bound to a mud-bank. If they fret till the 
proud heart break, it will not mend the hole in the bottom of the ship, nor 
give us the vessels lying idle here in the port. I believe there is promise 
of one that will take four or five hundred, when she has discharged her 
cargo. The soldiers are encamped on shore, roving up and down for 
oysters. They show discontent when there is talk of leaving them. If 
General Butler will wait the repairs, and sail in the Mississippi himself, 
they will be satisfied. I went on shore to-day. One plantation covers the 
island. The planter's house is insignificant, backed by a dozen negro-huts. 
Level fields — yellow -pine trees in the distance— a ditch or two — here and 
there a scattering palmetto — stunted-looking things, with a few leaves clus- 
tered at the top, rattling away like sticks. How can one think them 
comely? The trunk is trough, the bark standing out jagged and prickly, 
giving entrance and shelter to snakes during the cold weather. 

"I began this letter to give you an account of our voyage thus far; but 
the dangers we ha^e met are so recent, and those to come so threatening, 
that my mind seems willing to avoid both, and cling to the present mo- 
ment — for here is land, sunshine, and safety. A few nights ago, and we 
would have given ' a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground, 
long heath, brown furze, any thing.' 

" The storm came on soon after we left the Bay, and neared Hatteras. 
Awful point! This is the second time I have been nearly lost there. 
Again the men formed in line, from hold to deck, and bailed water all 
night. The seas, roaring, phosphorescent, gleaming as serpents' backs, 
struck the quivering ship like heavy artillery. The dread was, when she 
plunged in the trough of the sea and the waves swept over her, that she 
would founder and go down. We turned our course north, to run with 
the wind, which blew from the south-east. We kept in it that night, and 
through next day until twelve o'clock. Then the storm was so far broken, 
that we turned short about, ran up three sails, and flew down the coast 
like a bird, past Cape Hatteras, Point Lookout, down to Cape Fear. Tb is 



APPENDIX. 



633 



distance we had made from twelve at noon yesterday ; now nine in the 
morning. "We were at breakfast, congratulating each other on our escape 
from the storm, the delightful weather, and the rapid speed we were 
making. I left the table a moment, and was in my room preparing to go 
on deck, when there came a surging, grating sound from the bottom of the 
vessel ! A pause — the engine stopped — (a hush of dread throughout the 
ship) — it worked again — another heavy lurching and quivering of the ship 
— again the engine stopped. We were aground on Frying-pan Shoals, 
fifteen miles from shore. The coast held by the enemy. Four or five small 
boats, and sixteen hundred people aboard. Dismay on every face ! I asked 
General Butler of the danger. 'A hundred-fold more than the storm! 
But there is no time for words — I must look to the ship.' Yet for a time 
we were safe ; the day was fine — the vessel imbedded in sand, so that her 
keel would not be stove with rocks. Brains and hands worked busily, 
devising and executing ways to get her off ; and men watched for sails at 
every point, for there, in truth, was almost our only hope. At last, one 
appeared in sight. Signals were hoisted. (It was proposed to hoist it 
with the Union down. 'Not so,' said General Butler; k let the Union go 
up.') Guns were fired to show our distress, though apprehensive she 
might prove a rebel steamer, and we be forced to fight in our crippled 
state, or yield, inglorious prisoners. She could not come directly to us, 
and hours vvere consumed before she could round the shoal, and feel her 
way slowly with the lead, somewhere within a mile of us. She proved a 
friend. It was now late in the afternoon. "We ran on at full tide, and 
must wait till it returned, at seven in the evening, before we could hope to 
pull her off. A hawser was stretched to the other vessel, and the soldiers 
moved double quick fore and aft to loosen her from the sand. They labored 
and pulled, but failed to lift her ; the tide was not yet full. Two or three 
hundred men were already sent to the 'Mount Vernon.' The wind began 
tp rise, and the waves to swell into the heavy seas, that look so dark and 
wrathful. General Butler came to me and said, ' You must make ready to 
go in a few minutes.' Captain Glisson was about to return to his own 
vessel, and would take me with him. The General's duty would be, to 
remain until every man was safe, or while the ship held together. This 
was clear enough, and I only said, '/ would rather remain here, if you 
are willing.' I know not why, but I felt more safety where I was, than in 
that little boat tossing below in the mad waves, or in the strange vessel m 
the distance. 'Why do you think of such a thing?' he said. 'Are you 
mad, that you would risk to the children the loss of both?' — 'I will go,' I 
answered, ' when the captain is ready.' General Butler went away to the 
pilot-house. The ship was beating heavily on the surf, and men's hearts 
beat heavier still, as the night swept toward us. The deck was crowded 
with men. Major Bell gave me his arm. There was a more— a 'Make 
27* 



634 



APPENDIX. 



way for Mrs. Butler!' I was helped over the railing. (One man spoke 
out, ' "Well, if a woman can keep cool, it will be strange if we can't.') Cap- 
tain Glisson preceded me down the side of the ship, and aided as much as 
possible. The boat was tossing like a nut-shell far below, as down the 
unsteady ladder we slipped. When nearly at the bottom, the captain said, 
'Jump, madam — we'll catch you ;' and down I went into the boat. 'Pull, 
men — be lively !' the captain called out every few minutes. A wave leaped 
up and drenched the man at the tiller ; he shrank from it, but the captain 
urged to greater speed. In a quarter of an hour we were aboard the Mount 
Vernon. Only two boats followed — two more were obliged to put back ; 
the waves were so rough, they could not make the ship. 

" I sat in the cabin, sick and trembling. If they could not get her off 
the shoals (where in a little while she would beat to pieces), how could 
those thousand men escape? The duty of the officers was to take care of 
the men, and the highest in command must be the last to leave. The 
Mount Vernon was too small to take them all, even if they could reach us. 
One would not like to encounter many such hours. 

" The captain came often to tell me what was doing. He had sent his 
best officer to our ship, and, when the tide was full, there was a chance 
she might be moved. (I saw he had little hope she would be.) Only one 
ship ever escaped from those shoals that met the misfortune to ground 
there. Soon after the captain went out, there came a long shout swelling 
over the water— not a cry of distress, but a shout of joy : ' Hurrah ! hurrah ! 
she is off the shoals, and into deep water!' In two hours, we were out of 
those dangerous waters, and safely anchored. The Mount Vernon touched 
three times while she was aiding, but happily escaped. The next morning 
General Butler came on board to breakfast. It was decided we must keep 
on to Port Royal, a hundred and sixty miles, and there repair. Down the 
ship's side, and again on our own vessel. This time I was drawn up in a 
chair, draped with flags. I think many were glad to see me back; it 
looked as though we had confidence in the ship. I have no* yet told you 
her condition : her forward compartment filled with water, and leaking 
into the next — the pumps working continually to keep it out ; the bow 
much deeper in the water than the stern, but the machinery quite perfect. 
Our safety must depend on the weather. I must tell you the hole in the 
bow was made by the anchor, thrown over after we had grounded, the ship 
working round on to it. One would have thought we were fast enough 
without the anchor. 

" "We left the Mount Vernon in haste, for Captain Glisson discovered a 
schooner trying to run the blockade, and instantly gave chase. It was 
watched with interest from our vessel. We lay there, awaiting her return, 
to furnish us with another pump, and to have Captain Glisson's judgment 
of our chances of escape to Port Royal. The shore was alive with cavalry, 



APPENDIX. 



635 



dashing along apparently in high excitement — thinking, perhaps, we were 
there to attack them. It was growing late in the day again, and hazy- 
looking. General Butler wanted a pennon made, to show which way the 
wind came. I went down to my trunk and brought a scarlet ribbon, which 
was fashioned and sewed with care, though we were there in sight of an 
enemy, with an almost disabled ship. Captain G-lisson returned at length, 
with his prize. One of our officers went out to her, and brought us cap- 
tured bananas and oranges. 

t; At last we started just in the state we were, without another pump, or 
any less water in the hold. The Mount Vernon accompanied us, but in 
a storm could do little to aid. Our night and day gave too much time for 
thought, when so intensified. General Butler was exhausted, and slept. 
He would, I think, if a mine were beneath him ready to explode. I could 
only doze a moment, and wake with a shock. The day (Sunday) was 
passed on deck. Morning service at eleven o'clock. Those that pray not 
often, I think prayed then — prayed that God would have mercy on us, and 
let the waves be still. He was merciful, for we are here. The next day 
the wind blew so fearfully, that it broke our fastenings at the wharf, and 
drove us into the middle of the creek. What would have been our chance 
at sea ! 

" Of the thoughts that came crowding as I lay, sick and faint, on the 
night of the storm — yes, and since, too — of the dear children's faces, that 
kept coming and changing ; of their altered future, if they lost us now ; of 
relatives, friends; of the quick cry for mercy, 'Let me see them, dear 
Christ, and die among our own people !' — of this I will write no more, and 
trust my next letter will not be less thankful, but more cheerful. I will 
tell you of the town of Beaufort, our sail there, the flowers we gathered 
— roses, camelias, and orange-blossoms, in the open gardens of the spacious 
houses — and our voyage from this to Ship Island, when we have made it. 
Till then, with love, quickened by danger, to the children, to you, and all, 
adieu. "Saeah Butlee." 

n. 

"Ship Island, March, 1862. 
" Deae H. : — We arrived on Thursday. A thousand miles from Port 
Royal here. The weather was threatening a part of the time, and then 
I measured distance by heart-beats — a dangerous way of reckoning, if 
long continued. Two days in the Gulf of lovely weather, soft and balmy, 
and the moonlight magnificent. On one of these nights I sat on deck till 
ten o'clock; the officers, a little apart, were singing. The swift-moving 
ship, the dancing, glittering waters, and the deep-toned music, were in 
exquisite harmony. Very often their voices rung out in a full, rich chorus. 
How free and careless they felt, with no spot for the sole of their foot but 



636 



APPENDIX. 



that they must win by the sword, save this slip of sand rolled up by the 
sea ! Oortez and adventurers of the middle ages present a parallel, but 
none in this war has the romantic, roving, hazardous features that charac- 
terize this expedition. 

" The last day seemed more capricious, but the wind was in the rear, 
every sail filled, and the captain delighted with our speed. We were 
within twenty miles of Ship Island, when the Demon of the Storm, angry 
at our varied escapes, seized us once more in his ruthless grasp, and held 
us quivering another long night; that is, I will answer for myself and 
the ship — we quivered : soldiers, I suppose, are not so easily shaken. This 
was a thunder-storm ; it began at nightfall and continued till nearly morn- 
ing. The lightning was almost incessant, pitch darkness in the intervals. 
The captain dared not make the port, lest we should run aground, but 
turned the vessel away from the haven we were so anxious to reach, and 
once more put to sea. 

" We ran out into the Gulf until nearly morning ; then the storm broke, 
the day dawned clear and lovely, and by eleven o'clock we were anchored 
at Ship Island in glittering sunshine. Large, black vessels-of-war lay mo- 
tionless ; here and there a variety of smaller sails studded the water ; and 
the air was flashing with sea-gulls. 

" The island is attractive, seen from the ship ; a long, curving line of 
smooth beach, where the surf rolls in, and breaks gayly in foam on the 
white sands. The tents, whitest of all, rise just beyond, and seem to cover 
half the island, the centre of which is not much higher than the beach, and 
you might easily think it was all floating. 

u We have been here two days, and are not landed yet. That morning 
of beauty is all we have had. It began to blow a ' norther' at noon, and 
has not yet lulled so as to be safe for small boats. We are anchored some, 
distance from the shore. The Constitution and Fulton were here, but had 
gone before we arrived ; they should have waited. General Butler is very 
much vexed ; now there is not the proper transportation for the troops. 
The mortar-fleet has already left for its destination, and the other vessels 
will leave as soon as the wind is over. What page will open upon us next 
I cannot say. 

"I can see from the ship the house or room we are to have in addition 
to the tent. It is on one end of the island ; you can see the water on three 
sides, and very close to it. I shall expect, some windy night, to be swept 
off" into the sea. If here in the hurricane-season, I shall abandon that part 
of the island. 

" It is rather amusing, the trouble we have with the ship. In the first 
place, the pilot undertook to take her to the wharf ; and by the time we 
were up, the waves were so rough, it was not safe to fasten her to the 
wharf — she would have carried all away. After holding there awhile. 



APPENDIX. 



637 



she swept away, and in her backward movement canght a brig by the 
rigging, tangled it all together, knocked some wood from her bow, and held 
fast. Thus we anchored. The next morning made all clear, and they pre- 
pared to separate ; the wind still blowing. As the brig tried to draw off, it 
gave a lurch, came in endwise, and ran her bowsprit clear up into our deck. 
There it hung, broken and dangling, like an elephant's trunk, hoisted into 
our rigging. Everybody on deck was in danger, with this great thing stri- 
king in all directions ; yet nobody could help laughing — and, besides, we 
expect any thing now. At last, with pulling and cutting, they tore it away, 
and we started again on our adventures. This time we rushed madly at 
the Black Prince, which was anchored a little farther on, knocked her out 
of her moorings, and tore at her rigging. Then we plunged at another 
ship, the "Wild Gazelle, caught and grazed her, scattered a few splinters, 
then stood out into the harbor, and anchored apart from the other vessels. 
Their extended arms told their terror of encountering again this new mon- 
ster of the deep. Major Bell proposed that the vessels should be ordered 
to quit the harbor without delay. Our ship was on the 'lampage;' and, 
as she had ' chawed up 1 three for breakfast, it was likely that dinner would 
finish the remainder. 

" At evening, word came from the flag-ship that we were drifting too 
near, and desiring that we should move farther off. Once more we raised 
anchor, and steamed away to a greater distance. The monster was so 
gorged with breakfast, that she was not unmanageable. As we passed the 
flag-ship, the band gave us a charming serenade. The effect was peculiar. 
The night was mild, with heavy masses of rolling clouds, and the sun had 
gone down in crimson. 

To-day (Sunday) is the fourth of our arrival. The officers and men 
leave the ship for the island. I shall remain on board until to-morrow. 

" To-day. Mr. W and Captain D came for me. General Butler 

has been on shore two or three days. Mr. W took a hat-box, and, in 

crossing the plank between the boats, the hat fell into the water. The 

soldiers caught at it with their bayonets, but missed. TV slipped 

down the side of the vessel, holding by a soldier's hand, and caught it with 
Ms feet. He gave it to me dripping wet. We dipped it in a pan of fresh 
water, and smoothed it into shape, so that it will answer for the island. 

fell F I have a little shell, with a spray of coral attached, that came 

(nto the vessel when the hole was stove in the bow on Frying-pan Shoals. 
There will not be many pieces taken from that place. It is nothing in 
tself, but the association is something. 

"In a few days, General Butler will leave here with most of the troops. 
T shall be left alone, unless I can get that great conjuror Prospero, his 
daughter, and their train, to keep id a company; but, even in that event, I 
Bbould yet prefer my own daughter " Saeah Butlee." 



638 



APPENDIX. 



m. 

" Ship Island, March 29, 1862. 

"Deak H. : — I am sure you would like to know how we are living on 
this island of sand, far off in the sea. The room we occupy is about forty 
steps from the landing, constructed from refuse doors and windows not 
wanted for the hospitals. It is fifteen feet by twenty in size. "We have 

added a small ' bedroom' for , of rough boards, and a kitchen eight 

feet square. The ducks are floating about every morning ; we have them 

shot for dinner, and are well supplied with fresh fish. Captain W , 

with a company of soldiers, has been to one of the islands and captured 
fifty head of cattle. Prom them we have taken a cow and calf, and have 
them tied close to the house. They are wretchedly poor, half-wild things, 
that have lived on rushes ; of no possible use, except the domestic feature 
they give to this rude life. Flies abound — the rafters of our room are cov- 
ered with them ; mosquitoes not very annoying yet. They call the water 
good ; I think it brackish and unhealthy. I do not drink it unless made 
into tea. G has arrived with the horses ; but three lost of the whole. 

"I must tell you of the sad event of Dr. S 's death, caused, I believe, 

by the anxiety and distress he suffered during our disastrous voyage. Gen- 
eral Butler came yesterday afternoon, and said he had heard Dr. S 

was dying. 'Oh! is it possible? I must go up and see him.' General 
Butler thought I could not go, the day was so hot, and the regiment he 
belonged to was two miles up the island. I urged going. It was finally 
concluded I could take a boat and be rowed within a short distance of his 
tent, while General Butler would go on horseback. Before we reached the 
place, an orderly came to say he was then breathing his last, and that Gen- 
eral Butler had desired me not to go in. We sat down by the water, and 
waited There was a regiment a little beyond us, attacking a fort of sand, 
for drill, and firing at a wreck that lay out in the water. Another regiment 
was maneuvering in the rear. Twenty or thirty men in the shallow water 
in front, dragging along a raft of wood. Ten or twelve ships lay off a little 
distance, black and motionless. The soft haze obscured the rays of the 
sun, so that we could look full at the great red globe, as it hung in the rear 
of the ships, and lighted a scene I shall long remember. Between us and 
the sand-fort were eight graves with wooden head- stones, the name, age, 
and place of residence inscribed on each. ' So this is the place,' I thought, 

' where poor Dr. S must sleep his long sleep ! Ay, and more of us, 

before we shall quit this Gulf.' 

" The expedition to Biloxi, to demand an apology for firing on a flag of 
truce, has returned. They captured a steamer, schooner, tobacco, &c 



APPENDIX. 



639 



Major Strong was the leader. Captain Conant had his leg struck with a 
piece of shell ; the wound is not severe. None were killed. 

" The Saxon came in last night. General Butler was anxious for her 
coming ; he will run down to the passes, and see if the fleet is ready. Ou^ 
want of transportation is the great evil, hut every possible thing is done to 
remedy that. Our best hope lies in making an early and successful move- 
ment, while we have provisions on hand ; but if we fail, we may be left to 
starve in the Gulf. 

" Tuesday, 10th. — General Butler has gone down to the passes — the 
mouth of the river — in the Saxon, to see how soon the fleet will be ready. 
He went night before last, and should be back to-day ; but I do not think 
he can get here, the sea is so rough. The waves, all foam, are half way up 
to the house. It began yesterday afternoon, and in the night it blew a per- 
fect gale. The room where I live and sleep so shook and creaked, I verily 
thought it would come rattling over me. I got up, hunted for a light, but 
could not find one ; then looked out of the window, and wondered what I 
had better do. The wind seemed more furious, and did so buffet the poor 
shell, and shriek through the crevices, that I sprang to the door, to be out 
of the danger of falling timbers. But it was not inviting outside. The sail 

that was nailed to 's shed and the fence was swelling and beating 

like the sea. The negro cook sleeps in a small division next to . I 

feared the sail would lift them, like wings, and carry them all away, inclu- 
ding the cow and calf. I banged-to the door, and looked out on the other 
side. There were six or eight of the guard curled under the shelter of the 
opposite shed. It would never do to move out there ; they would take me 
for the witch of the winds, and shoot me like a snipe before I could ' hop 
me forty paces.' Then I bethought me that perhaps the room was stouter 
than I to face the winds, and crept into bed again. Uneasy and watchful, 
I listened with both ears. Something was shaking in the room, and it 
sounded like the shuffling of feet ; this noise made me nervous, until finally 
I could hear it more distinctly than any other sound, though the ocean was 
booming with a never-ending roar. At this time I fell asleep ; still I was 
awake to the sounds. Now I thought, ' Will those feet never be still?' and 
then they shuffled more fiercely, and Lorenzo the negro was leaping through 
the room like a maniac. I gazed at him with terror ; his eyes were evil as 
a snake's. When he sprang forward, desperation seized me. 'Strike!' I 

screamed to G ; ' help me to strike with this board, and batter him all 

to pieces ! ' Gould any thing equal the fury of those blows ? Yet they fell 
without effect : he still shuffled, and leaped toward us ! The horror was 
too much. I woke, and sat up in bed, half dead. In the morning sun, 
wreaths of glittering sand lay half across the floor: it was this, sifting 
through the crevices, that made the noise like shuffling feet. 

"The storm was the most violent that has been here for years. A 



640 



APPENDIX. 



thunder-storm lasted all night. The lightning was incessant. The guard- 
house was struck, three men killed, and four stunned. Four men were 
drowned the other day while bathing ; the under-tow swept them off." 

IV. 

"New Oeleaits, May 2, 1862. 

"Dea.e H. : — Long before you get this letter, Rumor, with her many 
tongues, has borne you the news that New Orleans is in our possession. 
The chances were more desperate even than was anticipated. The fleet 
has acted gloriously — ' outstripped all praise, and made it halt behind.' 
After bombarding a week with the mortar-fleet, without reducing the forts, 
Flag-Officer Farragut gave the signal for eighteen of the large vessels to 
pass the forts. This was at three o'clock in the morning. The river is not 
more than a mile broad ; the forts, on opposite sides, commanding it for 
two miles with a cross-fire. 

" "When this signal was made (the raising of two red lights), the vessels 
swept rapidly up the river. The caDnon thundered from the forts; the 
ships belched out their broadsides as they passed. Huge rafts of blazing 
wood, cotton, and pitch, were sent against the vessels, to do a double mis- 
chief — set them on fire, and show the enemy where their guns could find 
them. The air was filled with fire, smoke, and the seething engines of 
death. One of our ships was sunk, another disabled, and fell back. The 
fleet held gallantly on, and passed the forts, to encounter and defeat the 
gunboats lying above. They sunk and burned eleven vessels. New Or- 
leans was open to them. The forts were now in their rear, but not yet 
taken. The army-ships ran down to the river's mouth, about thirty miles, 
and up on the Gulf-side, in the rear of Fort St. Philip. The land at this 
point between the river and Gulf is not more than half a mile wide, and 
partially overflowed. The soldiers leaped into the water up to their necks, 
and dragged the boats through reeds and alligators to a point where they 
could land, to carry the forts by storm. The casemates were not injured, 
or the guns dismounted ; they were really as formidable as ever ; but a part 
of the fleet had passed — troops were landed in their rear — their soldiers, 
dispirited and mutinous, said they would not be sacrificed to the pride of 
the officers, compelled them to pull down the flag and surrender the forts. 
Flag-Officer Farragut, too brave and honorable to withhold the smallest 
praise due to another, declared that the prompt landing of troops in the 
rear was the immediate cause of the surrender of the forts. 

" While our troops lay in the rear of the forts, an order came to Ship 
Island for tents. Major Strong wrote me I had better come in the Saxon. 
Word came in the morning, and we left in the evening. When we arrived 
at the place on the following morning, the ships had left. We could see 



APPENDIX. 



641 



tLe smoke from the steamers, and the tall masts moving, over in the river. 
"We sailed down to the mouth of the river, up on the other side, and arrived 
opposite the forts at sunset. Three of our vessels lay at anchor, covered 
with soldiers, clustering like bees to a hive. They had just embarked, after 
manning the forts, and were only waiting General Butler's return to start 
for New Orleans. It was a strange picture to look at — the soldiers light- 
ing their camp-fires; the fragments of smoking wrecks; the suppressed 
sounds but eager motions. The air was electric ; the din of battle was still 
felt, though the actual encounter had passed away. As our vessel came 
alongside and dropped anchor, they gave us cheers of welcome, that re- 
lieved the excitement (if they felt as I did), but did not diminish mine. I 
hau not the confidence, grace, or good wit, to even wave a handkerchief. 

" G-eneral Butler came on board at nine in the evening. The next day 
our vessels drew up at the wharves in New Orleans. A thousand troops 
were disembarked that night, led by the General and staff, and in silence 
marched through the black and sullen town to the custom-house. Stores 
and hotels were closed, and windows barred. Word had gone through the 
town that whoever gave shelter, food, or aid to the vile Yankees, should 
hang at the lamp-post. They were wicked enough to execute their threat. 
The day before, they mobbed and injured several who had ventured a word 
in our favor, and actually had hung one, as they now threatened to hang 
others. The next morning more soldiers disembarked. One of the officers 
told me that, while marching through the streets, they were in terror lest 
the General should be shot at from the windows. But the only anxiety 
that seemed to disturb him was, how he would be able to keep step to the 
music. 

" At dusk General Butler returned. He had ordered the St. Charles to 
be opened, and compelled a hackman, at the point of the bayonet, to drive 
us to the hotel. We had no guard but an armed soldier on the box, and 
another behind the carriage. It looked hazardous, but no remarks were 
made. The distance was a mile and a half. A regiment was drawn up 
round the hotel, with four pieces of artillery on the corners to command 
the streets. They gave us tea at the hotel ; four or five only — how lonely 
we looked in that great room, with the waiter glancing askance at us ! In 
a town where assassination was a daily event, and murderers walked un- 
punished, one might be pardoned if the thought came, even while tasting 
the food, that we might all be poisoned like rats ! 

"The band was stationed on the piazza, at the head of the long flight of 
steps that front the St. Charles. Pillars run the length of the piazza, over- 
arched with stone; under this the music reverberated with deafening 
sound. The band played, with fiery energy, the national airs, from ' Star- 
spangled Banner' to 'Yankee Doodle.' If a mob mutt be encountered, it 
was decided they might as well be wrought to a demonstration that night. 



642 



APPENDIX. 



A crowd collected, listened to the music, and gradually dispersed, apparently 
not thinking it well to provoke a contest. Every day there will be greater 
security, for the poor will be relieved, and the rebellious disciplined. I was 
excited, in view of these things, but felt no fear. My courage rises when 
men contend. I could enter a battle-field with something of the inspired 
feeling that has raised women to leaders of armies. In storms and ship- 
wrecks, sickness, and the death of friends, where Heaven afflicts, I yield, 
and feel that without help we are nothing, and must wither away like 
autumn leaves. 

"The climate will affect our soldiers; they look pale and worn already. 
General Butler is quite well. I have been urging him to send for more 
troops, but they are wanted now, and the distance is great. Every town 
on the Gulf could be taken in a fortnight if we had the troops to occupy it. 
The rebels are panic-struck at the surrender of New Orleans. What say 
our dear friends and ugly enemies at the North ? Ah, this great triumph 
will make them all feel kindly. ' How shall we live through the summer? 1 
is the thought that haunts us — 'and brave that terror, the yellow fever?' 
It is not the heat alone (though so oppressive, none venture out at noonday), 
but the quality of the climate, that is so pernicious. The drainage of the 
town is all on the surface ; on each side the street the gutters are mantled 
with green. So with the canals — slimy and sluggish, they poison the air. If 
you drive out of town, the swamps that surround New Orleans are lower 
than the roads, and the exhalations at evening are injurious to health. 
But the work must be done, and many will live. I have grown thin and 
white, like others, but have no disease ; it is the natural wasting of the 
climate. 

"I am so impatient for the opening of the river ! The fleet have gone up 
to Vicksburg, and three thousand of the army. If General Butler were 
with them, his fiery determination would press them on to shell the town. 
I urged him to go, but those of better judgment said if he left New Or- 
leans, we were in danger of losing it. Yet, I wish he had gone to Vicks- 
burg. 

"Saeah Butler/" 



APPEOIXIL 



GENEKAL M. JEFF. THOMPSON. 

The following correspondence has recently passed between General But- 
ler and General Jeff. Thompson of the Confederate army, now a prisoner 
of war. General Thompson was long General Butler's principal adversary 
in Louisiana, as he was in command of the largest Confederate force in the 
vicinity of New Orleans. General Butler having been kind enough to send 
me the letters, as a matter of curiosity, I have taken the liberty to consider 
them part of the documents relating to the Department of the Gulf. The 
correspondence tends to show that, when the war is over, the people of the 
North and the people of the South will be astonished to find what excel- 
lent and cordial friends they are, after thirty years of alienation. 

general thompson to general butler. 

"Depot of Prisoners, 
"Johnson's Island, near Sandusky, Ohio, 
" September 28, 1863. 
" Major-General B. F. Butler, U. S. A., Washington, D. C. : 

" General : — About this time last year, the fortunes of war placed in my 
hands a Captain Thornton of your command, wounded and a prisoner of 
war. You will remember that I sent Captain Thornton on parole back to 
New Orleans, in your yacht. I promised Captain Thornton that, if I was 
ever captured, I would notify him of my whereabouts, that he might return 
the favors which he thought I extended to him. 

" I do not think that Captain Thornton is under any obligations to me, as 
I simply acted toward him as I have to all gentlemen who have been so 
unfortunate as to be captured by me ; but, in conformity with my promise, 
I would like to let him know that I am here ; and as I do not know his 
address, and understanding at the time that he was a personal friend of 
yours, I hope it will not be presuming to request you to forward him this 
letter, let me know his address, or otherwise let him know that I am at 
this prison, as may be most convenient or agreeable to yourself. 

" Yours most respectfully, 
"M. Jeff. Thompson, Brigadier- General, M. S. 



644 



APPE2sT)IX. 



GENERAL BUTLER TO GENERAL THOMPSON. 

"Lowell, Mass., October 6, 1863. 

" Brigadier- General M. Jeff. Thompson : 

' General: — Your note addressed to me was received to-day. I will 
forward it to Captain Thornton, now on Brigadier-General Shepley's staff 
at New Orleans, as you request. 

"I retain a lively sense of the courtesy and urbanity with which you 
conducted operations, when in command, opposed to me in Louisiana, and 
desire again, as before, to thank you for your kindness to Captain Thornton 
in sending him home wounded, by which kindness I have no doubt his 
life was saved. 

"Although an outlaw, by the proclamation of those whom you serve, for 
acts which no one knows more surely than yourself were untruly reported 
and unjustly construed, I will endeavor to have your imprisonment light- 
ened, or commuted, if possible. 

" I have, therefore, taken the liberty to forward a copy of your communi- 
cation to the war department, with a note, of which the inclosed shows the 
contents. 

" Sympathizing with you that the fortune of war has made you a pris- 
oner, yet you will pardon me when I add, that I am glad the enemies of my 
country are deprived of the services of so effective an officer. 

" Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"Benj. F. Butler." 



general butler to the officer commanding at Johnson's island. 

"Lowell, Mass., October 6, 1863. 
"To the Officer Commanding Depot of Prisoners, at Johnson's Island, near 
Sandusky, Ohio: 

" Sir : — Inclosed please find an unsealed note, to General M. Jeff. 
Thompson, now, as I am informed, a prisoner under your charge. If not 
inconsistent with the regulations of your depot, please deliver it. You will 
read it, if agreeable to you, and will learn therefrom, that General Thomp 
son showed great kindness to wounded officers and soldiers that fell into his 
hands ; and I beg leave to bespeak for him all the indulgence and liberty 
which can be shown him consistently with your discipline. 

"Please inform me if General Thompson is destitute, so that he can not 
supply himself with any little comforts that would alleviate and accord with 
his situation. 

" Most truly yours, 

"Benj. F. Butler." 



APPENDIX. 



645 



4 

GENEBAL BTJTLEE TO THE SEOEETAEY OF WAR. 

"Lowell, Mass., October 6, 1863. 
" Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War : 

" Sie: — I have the honor to inclose a note, received from Brigadier-Gene- 
ral M. Jeff. Thompson, whom I knew in command of the forces imme- 
diately opposed to me at Pontchatoula, on the northern side of Lake Pont- 
chartrain, when I was in command in the Department of the Gulf. The 
original I have sent, as requested, to Captain Thornton, oe Brigadier- 
General Geo. F. Shepley's staff. 

" Captain Thornton, a most valuable, brave, and efficient officer, was griev- 
ously wounded, with at least seven bullet holes through his clothes and 
various parts of his body, in the attack on Pontchatoula in September of 
last year, under the command of the late lamented Major-General Strong, 
then my chief of staff. Captain Thornton was left in the hands of the 
enemy, and received of General Thompson every care and kindness, and, at 
my request, was sent to New Orleans upon his parole. This courteous 
consideration on the part of General Thompson, I have no doubt, enabled 
qs, with the blessing of heaven, to save Captain Thornton's valuable life. 
General Thompson is now a prisoner at Johnson's Island, near Sandusky, 
Ohio. If not inconsistent with public service, I most earnestly ask that 
General Thompson may be released upon his parole. 

" While I can testify to the uniform urbanity and courtesy with which 
all the operations of General Thompson were conducted, I am most de- 
cidedly of opinion that the kindness which he showed to Captain Thorn- 
ton alone should entitle him to every possible consideration. That kindness 
was not alone given to the officers, but the wounded men spoke of his 
treatment with the utmost gratitude. 

" I found him a troublesome enemy enough, but his humanity, which 
was in contrast with the conduct of General Taylor, leads me to ask this 
favor for him at the hands of the government. 

" As I am not much in the habit of asking leniency for rebels, I trust the 
war department will take it as a guaranty that this is a proper case for the 
extension of every indulgence. 

" I am, most respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"Benj. F. Butler, Mayor- General U. 8. VoU." 

general thompson to general btjtlee. 

" Dep6t of Prisoners of Wae, 
"Johnson's Island, near Sandusky, Ohio, 
" October 12, 1863. 
" Major-General B. F. Butler, U. S. Vols., Lowell, Mass. : 

" General : — Your kind letter of the 6th inst. was received on the 10th, 
but a violent headache has prevented me from answering it until now. 



646 



APPENDIX. 



" I am very much obliged to you for the interest you take iu my welfare, 
and thank you for your unsolicited and nattering application to the United 
States war department in my behalf, and I am also grateful for the compli- 
mentary manner in which you speak of my conduct as an officer. 

" Should the United States war department prefer to ' parole' me, I will 
cheerfully accept it, not so much for the restricted liberty that it will give, 
as for the purpose of showing to the people of both governments that the 
stories that have been told about my being a guerilla, etc., are false; 
and that, with all the eccentricities and peculiarities that have been im- 
puted to me, I have not forgotten to be a gentleman ; and also that 
Captain Thornton and various other officers, who are under the impression 
that they are under obligations to me for similar favors, may feel that their 
government has shown a disposition to reciprocate for them. 

" Ton say that no one more surely than myself knows that the acts for 
which my government blames you were untruly reported and unjustly 
construed. What your intentions were when you issued the " order' which 
brought so much censure upon yourself, I, of course, can not tell, but I can 
testify, and do with pleasure, that nearly all of the many persons who 
passed through my lines, to and from New Orleans, during the months of 
August and September, 1862, spoke favorably of the treatment they had 
received from you, and with all my inquiries, which were constant, I did 
not hear of one single instance of a lady being insulted by your command. 

" Thanking you again for your kindness and compliments, and hoping 
that your government will soon conclude to ' let us alone,' 
" I am, most respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"M. Jeff. Thompson, Brigadier- General, M, S. G." 

The following letter from General Thompson to his sister, recently pub- 
lished in the newspapers, shows that General Butler's efforts in his behalf 
have not been fruitless. 

inteeesting feom jeff. to his sistee what he sats about things 

geneeally. 
"Johnson's Island, neae Sandusky, Ohio, 
" Sunday, Oct. 11, 1863. 
" Deae Sistee : — I know you will be astonished at an article which ap- 
peared in the St. Louis Republican of the 7th inst. about me, and in which 
the writer speaks of letters written by me to General Grant about Emma. 
Of course, everybody in St. Joseph will know how false this report is ; but 
still I feel grieved that any man should exist who is mean enough to write 
such an article. All know that at the beginning of the war Emma was at 
the asylum, and that, as soon as I heard that she was well, I sent Colonel 
Chappell to Cairo, to endeavor to get her sent down to me, and that, as soon 
as permits were granted to any one, she came down to me. I simply re- 



APPENDIX. , 



647 



mind you of these facts for fear some person who is not acquainted with me 
may believe the slander, and that you can show them the falsity. 

" I am to be offered my parole, in consideration of the courtesy and kind- 
ness which I have universally shown to all my enemies, and I may accept 
it, not that I care about the ' restricted liberty' that it will give, but it will 
show to my friends and enemies (I mean personal) that the stories that 
have been told about me are false, and that I have always conducted my- 
self, especially to those who were so unfortunate as to be taken prisoners 
(and more especially so when wounded), as a soldier and a gentleman. I 
car. assure you, dear sister, that, when the truth shall be told, you will never 
hear anything of me of which you need be ashamed, although you will 
probably be often mortified by reports, anecdotes, and stories that may be 
told upon me. I have hung and shot my own men for disobeying me, and 
I will do it again ; but the citizens where I have commanded have never 
been troubled by my troops or by my orders, and many Union men were 
and are in my district who can testify to this fact. You would be very 
proud to see some letters that I have received from prominent Union men 
and federal generals since I have been a prisoner. I am writing thus for 
fear I may not have time to write again before I leave, as, should the parole 
arrive and I accept it, I will immediately start to Richmond or to Canada. 
# ' .** * * * * * 

"I have authority to draw on George D. Prentice, of Louisville, or 
Major-General Benj. F. Butler, for what money I want ; but should I not 
accept the parole, I will prefer to trust to my old personal friendship for 
little dribs until I am exchanged. 

" You will hear through the newspapers whether I go to Canada or the 
Confederacy ; for I would be fearful to accept the parole for the United 
States, as I would quarrel with half the men I met. 

" Farewell, dear sister ; I may not have time to write again before I may 
again be on the war path, and then my life is always in danger. * * * 

" Your affectionate brother, 

"M. Jeff. Thompson v 

97* 



INDEX. 



Adams, General, allusion to, 69. 
Adams, John, quoted upon religious contro- 
versy, 23. 

Algiers, La., McClellan upon, 193 ; troops posted 
at, 283. 

Allyn, Lieutenant W. B., distinguished at Ba- 
ton Rouge, 571, 573. 

Alston, Colonel Augustus, his duel with Eeed, 
260. 

Alston, Mrs. A., attending her husband at duel, 
260. 

Alston, Willis, kills Eeed, 261 ; his trial, 261 ; 
death, 262. 

Ames, Major, bears dispatches for Governor 
Andrew, 94. 

Anderson, General Robert, at Sumter, 64 ; allu- 
sion to, 232 ; redressed by Butler, 431 ; Cocks 
to, 542. 

Andrew, Governor, advised to prepare for war, 
65; adopts Butler's suggestions, 66; appoints 
Butler brigadier, 69 ; addresses Sixth Regi- 
ment, 69; Butler to, from Philadelphia, 71; 
his letter to Butler, on the insurrection ques- 
tion, 94; recruiting controversy with Butler; 
179-184, 186. 

Andrew, John, story of, 538. 

Andrews, John W., committed to Ship Island, 
442. 

Andrews, private George, distinguished at Ba- 
ton Rouge, 573. 

Annapolis, General Butler to and at, 75. 

Appleton, Captain John F., commended, 585; 
to Butler, 601. 

Appleton, Nathan, surveys the site of Lowell, 16. 

Arkansas, ram, threatens New Orleans and Ba- 
ton Rouge, 565 ; blown up, 565. 

Arnold, Rev. Thomas, allusion to, 18. 

Astor Place riot, effects of, 257. 

Atlantic Monthly, quoted upon Pass Office at 
New Orleans, 487 ; anecdote from, 628. 

Autographs, Butler gives, 590. 

Avendano Brothers, case of, 389. 

Avery, Mr., in Charleston Convention, 49. 



Bacbe, Dr. Thomas H., on staff of Butler, 212. 

Bache, Professor, details Gerdes to survey Mis- 
sissippi, 266. 

Bacon, Captain D., distinguished at Baton 
Rouge, 573. 

Bailey, Captain Theodorus, at conference on 
Ship Island, 210 ; runs by the forts, 238, 241 ; 
lands in New Orleans, 269 ; interview with 
Mayor and Lovell, 270 to 272. 

Baker, Colonel, saves Butler in the senate, 153; 
recalled from Fortress Monroe, 167, 168; But- 
ler to, 175. 



Bailer, Sergeant, distinguished at Baton Rouge, 
573. 

Baltimore, chapter on, 100 ; condition in April, 
1861,102; women insult Union soldiers 324 

Banks, General N. P., his rank, 120; succeeds 
Butler at New Orleans, 597, 599 ; his policy, 
612. 

Bank of Kentucky, affair of, 428, 430. 
Banks of New Orleans, dealings of Butler with, 
414-431. 

Barker, Jacob, allusion to, 174; lends money to 
Butler, 409. 

Bartlett, Captain A. W., with Eighth Regiment, 
74. 

Batchelor, private H. T., distinguished at Baton 
Rouge, 572. 

Beauregard, General P. G. T., number of his 
troops at Bull Run, 190 ; builds forts below 
New Orleans, 221 ; troops from New Orleans 
join, 264 ; cheered at New Orleans, 281, 343 ; 
engineer of Custom House, 281 ; his bells, 288. 

Bates, Moses, Butler to, on convicts' children, 
534. 

Baton Rouge, McClellan upon, 194 ; visited by 
Butler, 438, 440; battle of, 463; taken. 551: 
battle of, 565. 

Beauregard, Mrs., Butler's courtesy to. 345. 

Beck, Quarter-master James, his fortitude, 242. 

Bee, New Orleans, The, comments upon But- 
ler's first measures, 300 ; allusion to, 329. 

Bell, Captain John, reconnoiters forts, 227; 
runs by the forts, 239, 241; hoists United 
States flag on Custom-House and Mint of New 
Orleans, 277, 278, 281. 

Bell, John, New Orleans votes for, in 1860, 253. 

Bell, Major Joseph M., anecdote of, 41; joins 
staff of Butler, 189 ; on the voyage to Ship Is- 
land, 204, 206, 207; announced, 212; views 
the running by the forts, 246; demands St. 
Charles's Hotel, 284; avoided by his old 
friends at New Orleans, 284; appointed pro- 
vost-judge of New Orleans, 297; purity of. 
his character, 412; decides for Durand, 423 ; 
his valuable services in provost court, 432, 
582; on Lafourche commission, 582; compli- 
mented on his retirement from provost court, 
585, 602. 

Bellows, Dr. Henry "W. , his opinion of Yan- 
kees, 15. 

Belly, Mr., his testimony on Confederate loan, 
380. 

Benachi, M. W., Butler to, on the sugar, 385 ; 

to Butler, on the oath, 456. 
Bendix, Colonel John E., at battle of Great 

Bethel, 143, 145. 
Benjamin, J. P., signs Davis's proclamation, 

611. 



650 



INDEX. 



Benjamin, Mr., takes oath of allegiance, 440. 
Bennington, battle of, incident, 13. 
Bickmore, Maior, distinguished at Baton Eouge. 
573. 

Biloxi, Miss., newspapers brought from, 209 ; 

expeditions to, 213, 215. 
Birge, Colonel, commended. 5S5. 
Black. Mr., Butler's advice to, 63, 64. 
Blackman, private A., distinguished at Baton 

Rouge, 573. 

Blair, Montgomery, Butler to. on battle of Bull 
Eun, 167;"approves Butler's course, 593. 

Blake, Captain, hi? alarm at Annapolis, 77; his 
interview with Colonel Butler, 79; with Gen- 
eral Butler, SO. 

Blasco de Garay. the Confederate coin shipped 
in, 380 ; convevs illicit passengers from New 
Orleans, 394 ; case of, 406. 

Boardman, Captain F., with Eighth Eegiment, 
74. 

Boggs, Captain Charles, assists Butler at Port 
Eoyal, 207 ; his gallantrv in the battle above 
the forts, 243 ; sent to Butler, 245, 248, 249 ; 
returns with him, 250. 

Bombardment of forts below New Orleans, 185, 
227, 229 ; results of, 250. 

Bonaparte, Louis, allusions to, 50, 283. 

Bonaparte, Napoleon, allusions to, 101, 290. 

Bunnell. Mr., with Winthrop, 92. 

Boston Courier, The, upon the woman order, 343. 

Bouligny, Mr., runs for Congress, 527. 

Boutelle, Captain, assists Butler at Port Eoyal. 
207. 

Bovington. Sergeant John A., distinguished at 
Baton Eouge^ 572. 

Brady, James T., compared with Soule, 290. 

Bragg, General Braxton, allusion to, 520. 

Breckinridge, John C, in Charleston Conven- 
tion, 49 ; "his platform in 1860, 56; pledged to 
the Union, 57; endeavors to prevent civil 
war, 60 ; project to place him in the White 
House, 65; his vote in New Orleans in 1S60, 
253 ; allusion to, 436 ; at battle of Baton Eouge, 
565, 566. 

Breed, Bowman G., with Eighth Eegiment. 74. 

Briggs, Captain Henry S., joins Eighth Eegi- 
ment, 70, 72. 

British Guard, vote to send their arms to Beau- 
regard, 278 ; consequences of the measure, 357. 

Britton, Barkley, his guns, 209. 

Broderick, Mr., died in arms of Colonel Butler, 
69. 

Brooklyn, the, protected by chain armor, 225; 

runs by the forts, 238, 242. 
Brooks, Sergeant, distinguished at Baton Eouge, 

572. 

Brown, Colonel E. M.. detailed to edit Delta in 
New Orleans, 312, 435. 

Brown, John, Butler's speech upon, 42; hon- 
ored by Phelps, 164; Leacock upon, 478; al- 
lusion to, 500. 

Brown, Lieutenant, distinguished at Baton 
Eouge, 570, 572. 

3rown, Mavor, inactive against mob, 103; his 
note to Butler, 112. 

Bruce, Lieutenant F., distinguished at Baton 
Eouge, 573. 

Buchanan, James, his terrors, 41 ; rejects But- 
ler's scheme, 64 

Buchanan, Lieutenant McKean, at Ship Island, 
197. 

Bull Eun, battle of, 167, 189. 



1 Burns, Sergeant, nelps Mumford tear down flag, 

275. 

Burr, Aaron, allusion to, 63, 292. 526. 

Business in New Orleans, 407, 436. 

Butler. Andrew Jackson, why so named, 14 ; his 
boyhood, 16 : serves as volunteer aide, 69 ; 
makes purchases at Philadelphia, 71 ; goes 
ashore at Annapolh, 76,79; buys horses for 
Fortress Monroe, 13'' ; assists to equip New 
Orleans expedition, iS9; brings cattle from 
Texas to New Orleans 303 ; calumnies respect- 
ing, 411; allusion to, 6S4; denounced by 
Davis, 610. 

Butler. Captain John, his career and politics, 
13, 14, 17. 

Butler, Lieutenant, at battle of Great Bethel 
143. 

Butler, General Benjamin F., his lineage. 13; 
birth and childhood, 15; education. 16; at 
college, 19 ; chooses profession, 23 ; voyage to 
Labrador, 23 ; studies law. 24; joins militia.24 : 
anecdotes of his early career at the bar. 25, 26, 
27 ; character as a lawyer, 28 ; debate with Mr. 
Lord, 31 ; anecdote of his legal legerdemain, 32, 
the scurvy case. 33: his success at the bar. 34 ; 
examinerat West Point. 35; his state politics ; 
36; supports the ten hour law. 36; in the 
legislature. 38 ; his national politics. 38. 39, 42 ; 
calls on Sumner. 42; his John Brown speech, 
42; his course in the Charleston Covention, 
45; votes for Jefferson Davis, 55; supports 
Breckinridge, 55. 56; hooted at Lowell, 57: 
defends his course. 5S ; runs for governor. 59 ; 
at Washington, in December, 1860. 60; his ad- 
vice to Black, 63; advises Wilson to warn 
Governor Andrew, 65; his own advice to th<» 
governor. 66; sends flag to General Dix, 67 
assists the departure of the troops, 67 : or 
dered to take command. 69 : starts for Wash- 
ington, 70 ; at Philadelphia,70 ; determines to . 
go by Annapolis. 71 ; the journey to Havre 
de Grace. 73; at Annapolis, 76; interview 
with Lieutenant Matthews. 77, 78; replies to 
Governor Hicks and Captain Miller. 80; res- 
cues the Constitution, SO; interview with 
Governor Hicks, 82 ; order of the day at An- 
napolis, 83: Lefferts refuses to join him. S5; 
seizes railroad. S6 ; offers to suppress insur- 
rection in Maryland. S9 : letter to Governor 
Hicks, 90 ; orders for the march. 91 ; placed 
in command at Annapolis, 93; letter to Gov- 
ernor Andrew, 94 ; confers with Scott upon 
Baltimore, 105; at Eelav House. 106: takes 
Baltimore, 111; explores Federal Hill. 112; 
proclamation at Baltimore, 113 ; dines at Gil- 
more House, 115; rebuked by Scott 116; 
prepares to try Winans, 116; recalled from 
Baltimore, 117; offered major-generalship, 
117: speech at Washington. 117: interview 
with Scott, 119; at Fortress Monroe, 122; 
first measures there, 123; interview with 
Carey, on contrabands, 127 ; his letters to Scott, 
on his operations and plans. 129. 133; inter- 
view with old gentleman, 131 : no horses at 
the Fortress, 137 ; letter to, upon his position 
at Fortress Monroe. 138: battle of Great 
Bethel, 139; his letter to Mrs. Winthrop. 150; 
censured for Bethel. 152, 153 ; correspondence 
with Magruder. 153. 154 ; suggests examining 
board. 155; war upon drinking. 157-159; 
correspondence with Stead. 161 ; "forbids pil- 
lage, 162: visited by Russell, 163; to Blair, on 



INDEX. 



651 



the battle of Bull Eun, 167; troops ordered] 
away, 167 ; procures promotion for Phelps, 
16S;" to Cameron, on contrabands, 168; to 1 
Tappan, on same, 178; Southern biography of, 
174; to Baker, asking advice, 175; recalled 
from Fortress Monroe," 1 75 : receives appoint- 
ment from Wool, 177; commands Hatteras 
expedition, 177: recruits in New England, 
179; collision wi;h Andrew, ISO to 184; re- 
commends Ship Island, 185; sends troops 
thither. 1S5 ; his opinion upon the Mason and 
Slidell affair, 186; letter to Colonel Wheldon, 
on supporting families of his troops, 187; his 
staff, 18S; testifies before war committee, 
189; urges New Orleans project, 191 ; placed 
over Department of the Gulf, 192; leaves 
Washington, 194: his remarks upon Phelps's 
proclamation, 201 ; his vova^e to Ship Island, 
203-208 ; arrives at Ship Island 208; con- 
sults with Farra<rut, 210; embarks troops, 
211; sends expedition to Biloxi, 215; com- 
mends Biloxi troops, 218 ; meditates descent 
upon Pensacola, 219 ; sends coal and medicines 
to the fleet, 224 ; reaches mouth of the Mis- 
sissippi, 232 ; reaches the fleet, 233 ; views the 
running bv. 239, 246; conducts troops to rear 
of St. Philip, 248 ; goes to the fleet before 
New Orleans, 250 ; reaches fleet, and advises 
threat of bombardment, 276; orders troops 
to the city, 277 ; his feeling toward the rebel- 
lion. 278; lands in New Orleans, 2S0; first 
measures, 282; interview with the mayor, 
2S5; orders Summers to Custom-House, 28S; 
conducts Mrs. Butler to the St. Charles, 289 ; 
mode of treating abusive letters, 290 ; inter- 
view with mayor and council, 290-297: his 
person and manner described, 291 ; reply to 
Soule, 295; consents to withdraw the troops 
from New Orleans, 298 ; feeds and employs 
the poor, 300; rebukes mayor and council. 
304, 805 ; to Shepley, on cleaning the streets. 
307; taxes rich for support of poor, 309- 
312; to Stanton, defending poor tax, 316; sup- 
ports charities of New Orleans, 320; to Santa 
Maria Clara, 320 : to Halleck, on poor in 
New Orleans, 321; repeats poor tax, 322; 
basis of his policy in New Orleans, 323 ; for- 
bids Davis's fast, 323 ; issues woman order, 
827 ; to mayor and council, on French fleet, 
329; deposes and commits mayor, 381-835; 
to the mayor, on the woman order, 333 ; ar- 
rests Soule, 83S; defends woman order, 342; 
his courtesy to Mrs. Slocomb, 344; to Mrs. 
Beauregard, 345 ; orders execution of Mum- 
ford, 346; orders execution of six paroled 
prisoners, 347; correspondence with Eosier 
and Durant, upon, 349 ; reprieves them, 351 ; 
interview with Mercer upon Mumford. 351 ; 
compared with Seward, 355; banishes the ! 
British guard, 357 ; ignores Coppell, 359 ; re- 
plies to Heidsieck, 360 ; seizes silver from 
Conturie, 365 to 377 ; receives Eeverdy John- 
son, 371; detects French consul. 378-382; 
"lefends seizure of the sugar, 8S3 ; defends 
seizure of Kennedy & Co's bill, 3S6 : explains 
case of Avendano Brothers, 3S9 : his measures 
against yellow fever, 39S-406 ; his efforts 
to revive, business, 407; buys sugar for bal- 
'ast. 408; sends cotton home, 409 ; calumnies 
against, 409: failed to get cotton, 413: re- 
stores currency of New" Orleans. 414: affairs 
with the banks of New Orleans, 413-431; 



redresses Union men in New Orleans, 431; 
engraves Union motto on Jackson's statue, 
432 ; seizes Delta, 435 ; reforms public schools, 
435 ; visits Baton Eouge, 440 ; commits Mrs. 
Philips, Andrews, and Keller, 441, 442 ; con- 
founds Wright, 443 ; detects and hangs four 
robbers, 445-448; issues oath order, 450; 
correspondence with consuls on same, 454- 
459; disarms New Orleans, 463; to French 
consul, on same, 464; confiscates Twiggs and 
Slidell, 467; prepares for confiscation act, 
461, 469 ; to Seward, on Fago case. 470 ; or- 
ders register of property, 473 ; Jeff Thomp- 
son to, 474; replies to Mercer, 475; confis- 
cates dividends, 476 ; Leacock to, on his ser- 
mon, 479; on the oath, 4S1; banishes thj 
clergymen, 484; pressure upon, for passes, 
485,486; his course upon negro question in 
New Orleans, 491; correspondence with 
Phelps, upon, 497 ; to Stanton, on Phelps, 
504; raises regiments of free colored men, 
517; to Weitzel, on same, 518; works aban- 
doned plantations, 522 ; his contract with the 
planters, 523 ; proposes t'o free slaves of for- 
eigners, 529-531; negro anecdotes related 
by and of, 532; to Bates, on convicts' children, 
534; reviews regiment at reception of colors, 
535; delivers Jeff, 536; John Andrew, 539; 
protects Pugh's negroes, 541 ; supplies wants 
of Cock's daughter, 543; punishes Landry 
547; his change of opinion upon slavery, 549 ; 
his military operations, 551; governing the 
troops, 555; his war upon guerillas, 559- 
565 ; upon battle at Baton Eouge, 566 : se- 
questers Lafourche, 5S1 ; in his office, 5S7 ; 
recall from New Orleans, 593-599; pro- 
poses to roof Custom-House, 594; sends Hill to 
Havana, 594 ; his popularity in New Orleans, 
595 ; to Lincoln, on his recall, 597 ; receives 
Banks, 599; his farewell order, 600 ; Appleton 
to, 601 ; his farewell address, 602 ; proclaimed 
a felon by Davis, 607; reward offered for kill- 
ing him, 612; leaves New Orleans, 612; at 
Washington, 614; reception by the people, 
615-617; his recent speeches, 618-625; 
remarks upon his character, 625. 
Butler, Captain Zephaniah, fought under 
Wolfe, 13. 

Butler, Mrs. Mere, her lineage, 13 ; left a widow, 
14; educates her boy, 16-18. 

Butler, Mrs. Sarah, allusion to, 35 ; at Fortress 
Monroe, 149 ; Mrs. Johnson to, 152; enter- 
tains Eussell, 164 ; starts for New Orleans, 194 ; 
on the voyage, 205, 206 ; clothes little girl at 
Ship Island, 213 : arrives at the St. Charles, in 
New Orleans, 289 ; allusion to, 291. 

Burrows, Captain, ordered to leave New Or 
leans, 357, 359. 

Byam, Major, takes oath of allegiance, 440. 



Cable, the, described, 221 ; cut, 235, 236. 
Cadwallader, General, succeeds Butler at Bal 
timore, 117. 

Cahill, Colonel T. W., in Biloxi expedition, 
215; appointed on jarl commission, 529 ; dis- 
tinguished at Baton Eouge, 571. 
Caldwell, Captain, cuts the cable, 235. 
I Calhoun, John C, conversation with Stewart, 
| 39 ; allusion to, 60, 266. 

Oallrjon. Seflor Juan, in case of the Cardenas, 
1 404, 405 ; to Butler, on the oath, 456. 



652 



INDEX. 



Cameron, Simon, orders troops from Massa- 
chusetts, 68, 69 ; ignorant of military matters, 
102; Butler to, on Winans, 116; approves 
Butler's taking Baltimore, 117 ; correspond- 
ence with Butler on contrabands, 168-173; 
authorizes Butler to recruit in New England, 
179, 181, 183; retires from office, 189. 

Camp Parapet, negroes at, 496. 

Cardenas, the, case of, 400, 402. 

Carey, Major J. N., interview with Butler, 
127. 

Carlyle, Thomas, quoted upon criticism, 18 ; 

upon impressment of seamen, 221. 
Carr, Colonel, at Great Bethel, 146. 
i arney, James G., procures loan from his bank 

to help off troops. 6S. 
Carroll family, Butler proposes to arrest 

members of, 107. 
Carrollton, Louisiana, visited by Farregut, 273; 

Phelps in command at, 298. 
Carter, vidette, exchanged. 154, 155. 
Catinet, the, at New Orleans, 330. 
Cavaroc, C, his notice to depositors, 418. 
Cayuga, the, runs by the forts, 238, 241, 245. 
Center, Captain A., with Eighth Eegiment, 74. 
Ceres, the, in expedition against Ponchatoula, 

577. 

Cilley, Colonel, at battle of Bennington, 13. 

Cilley, Mr., shot in duel, 13. 

Citizens 1 Bank of New Orleans, its silver 

seized, 364 — 376; its correspondence with 

Butler, on Confederate property, 427. 
Chase, Salmon P., calls Butler the cheapest of 

generals, 309, 409 ; receives Confederate 

money from New Orleans, 431; approves 

Butler's course, 593. 
Chalmette, batteries at, reduced, 268. 
Charitv Hospital of New Orleans scene in, 259 ; 

aided by Butler, 312. 
Charleston Convention, General Butler in, 45. 
Chatham, Lord, quoted, 127. 
Chessman, Lieutenant, distinguished at Baton 

Rouge, 573. 

Cheever, Sergeant, distinguished at Baton 
Rouge, 571, 573. 

Choate, Rufus, in the scurvy case, 33; anec- 
dote of ; 41. 

Churchill, C. C, serves at Fortress Monroe, 177. 
Clara, Santa Maria, Butler to, on bombardment 

of Donaldsonville, 321. 
Clarke, Captain C. E., distinguished at Baton 

Rouge, 572. 

Clark, Captain John, in Biloxi expedition, 215, 
216 ; distributes food among poor, 306 ; de- 
tailed to edit Delta, 312, 435; commended 
585. 

Clarke, Lieutenant H. C, on staff of Butler, 212. 
Clary, W. M., executed, 447, 449. 
Clifton, the, in the running by the forts, 238. 
Clogston, private, distinguished at Baton Rouge, 
573. 

Clouet, Captain de, remonstrates against bom- 
bardment of New Orleans, 276. 

Cocks, John G., his property seized in New 
Orleans, 431 ; his letter to Anderson, 542 ; his 
brutal incest, 543. 

Conant, Captain, in Biloxi expedition, 215; 
wounded, 216; arrests Soule, 338. 

Confiscation act enforced in Lo uisiana, 467. 

Connecticut, th;;, fired at, 402. 

Constitution, frigate, rescued by Eighth Massa- 
chusetts, 80. 



Constitution, the transport, voyages to Ship 
Island, 197. 

Consuls in New Orleans, for secession, 254; call 
on Butler, 298; protest against poor tax, 313; 
Butler's argument upon, 314; their import- 
ance in New Orleans, 354; protest against 
seizure of silver. 368 ; against the seizure »f 
the sugar, 382 ; Butler to, 383. 

Continental Monthly, quoted upon survey o( 
the Mississippi, 227. 

Contrabands, the, at Fortress Monroe, 126, 129, 
130; letters upon, of Butler and Cameron. 
168-173; serve on Hatteras expedition, 17S. 

Conturie, Amedie, silver seized from. 365- 
377. 

Convicts' children in Louisiana, 584 

Cook's battery, at Relay House, 106. 

Coppell, George, protests against banishment 
of British Guard, 357; ignored by Butler, 
359; Butler to, on the sugar, 385; supposed 
author of consul's letter, 456; correspondence 
with Butler on the oath, 460 ; approves free- 
ing of foreigners' slaves, 531 ; complains of 
John Andrew, 539. 

Cordin, Captain, distinguished at Baton Rouge, 
570. 

Carruth, Lieutenant, distinguished at Baton 
Rouge, 570. 

Cotman, Dr., declines to run for Congress, 526. 

Cotton, burnt at New Orleans, 265; Moore 
urges planters to burn, 266 ; Lovell approves 
burning, 271; forbidden to be brought to 
New Orleans, 315; on what terms exported 
bv Confederates, 315; sent home by Butler, 
410, 413. 

Cotton kingdom, the, its morality, 257-263. 
Covas, Mr., seizure of his sugar, 383. 
Crage, G. W., executed, 447, 449. 
Craven, Captain, in the running by the forts, 
241. 

Creasey, George, advocate of Eighth Regiment, 
74 

Currency of New Orleans, mayor offers to re- 
deem Confederate notes, 269; Confederate 
notes permitted to circulate, 294; Butler's 
measures to restore, 414-431. 

Curtis, George W., quoted upon Winthrop, 149, 
150. 

Cushing, Caleb, in Charleston convention, 45. 
Cushing, Lieutenant J. W., on staff of Butler. 
212. 

Custom-House of New Orleans, Farragut orders 
United States flag upon, 270. 272 : flag hoisted 
upon, 278 ; United States troops enter, 280. 

Cut-off, suggested by Butler, 554. 

Cyprien's Canal, troops stationed near, 251. 



Davis, Captain, bears flag of truce, 154. 
Davis, Captain R. S., on voyage to Ship Island, 

205; announced, 212; in Biloxi expedition. 

215; in affair of Wright. 444; Phelps to. 

on the negroes, 498, 505-507; commended, 

585. 

Davis. Jefferson, his opinion of Yankees. 15 ; 
voted for by Butler at Charleston, 55; visited 
by Butler at Washington. 62; cheered at 
New Orleans, 269 ; his fast-day annulled in 
New Orleans, 323 : how prayed for in New 
Orleans, 338; chef red by crew of Biualdo, 
393; knew of Butler's recall. 509: denounces 
Butler as a felon. 607. 



INDEX. 



653 



Davis, Mr., his testimony on Confederate loan, 
879. 

De Bow, J. B. D., allusion to, 266, 352 ; effects 
loan for Confederate cloth, 378. 

Deerfield, New Hampshire, politics of 14; 
General Butler horn there, 15. 

De Kay, Lieutenant, his funeral, 438-442. 

Delta, New Orleans, quoted upon dueling, 259 ; 
upon poor-tax, 312; quoted upon women of 
New Orleans, 328; upon Butler's currency 
measures, 426 ; change of editors, by author- 
ity, 435; its humor, 435; quoted upon the con- 
suls, 453; upon Hawkins's house, 462; on the 
oath, 474; denoanced by Leacock, 481; cu- 
rious entry in its books, 538. 

Deming, Colonel H. C, lands in. New Orleans, 
281,283; appointed on jail commission, 529; 
speaks in New Orleans, 595; commended, 
585. 

Democratic party, in New Hampshire, 14; its 
alliance with the South, 39 ; split in Charles- 
ton Convention, 46; secret of its power in 
great cities, 254. 

Denegre, Mr., in affair of the silver, 374 

Devereux, Captain Arthur F., detailed to seize 
ferry boat, 72, 74 

Deynoodt, Joseph, to Butler, on the oath, 456. 

Dickens, Charles, one of his characters, 59. 

Dickenson, Charles, his duel with Jackson, 
262. 

Dike, Captain, his promptness to join Sixth 
Massachusetts, 68 ; wounded at Baltimore, 68. 

Dimmick, Colonel, at Fortress Monroe, 120, 
123, 136. 

Dimon, Lieutenant C. A. E., distinguished at 
Baton Rouge, 571. 

Dix, General John A., receives flag from But- 
ler, 67; his rank, 120; allusion to, 168; com- 
mands expedition in Virginia, 184. 

Dominique, Henry, case of, 432. 

Donaedme, John, distinguished at Baton Rouge, 
573^ 

Dousdas, Stephen A., in Charleston conven- 
tion. 45, 47, 49, 52-54 ; his platform, in 1860, 
56 ; his vote in New Orleans, in 1S60, 253. 

Doyle, Daniel, ordered for execution, 347 ; re- 
prieved, 351. 

Duane, James, his narrative respecting the 
Rinaldo at New Orleans, 393. 

Dudley, Captain, distinguished at Baton Rouge, 
570. 

Duels, cause of, in New Orleans, 259 ; between 

Alston and Reed, 260 ; between Reed and 

another, 262. 
Duffee, private J. R., distinguished at Baton 

Rouge, 573. 
Dumas, Alexander, allusion to, 518. 
Duncan, General J, IL, commands forts, 221; 

his confidence, 223, 238; denounced in New 

Orleans, 266 ; harangues in New Orleans, 277. 
Duncan, Lieutenant, at Great Bethel, 146. 
Duncan, Mr., writes letter for mayor of New 

Orleans, 331 ; committed to Fort Jackson, 335. 
Dupasseur and Co., buy coin in New Orleans, 

373, 376. 

Durand, A., his suit of Bank of Louisiana. 423. 

Durant, Thomas J., quoted upon the Creole 
sugar-planters and secession, 253 ; his devo- 
tion to the Union, 254 ; pleads for paroled 
prisoners, 349; speaks in New Oi leans, 595. 

Durell. E. H., appointed on jail commission, 
529 



Duryea, Colonel A., at battle of Great Bethel, 
141, 144, 145. 



Easterbrook, Lieutenant J. E., on staff of But- 
ler, 212. 

Edminster, Corporal, distinguished at Baton 
Rouge, 573. 

Edwards, Jonathan, Winthrop descended from, 
149. 

Eighth Massachusetts militia, leaves Boston, 
70; at Philadelphia, 70; to Havre de Grace, 
73 ; at Annapolis, 76 ; march to Washington, 
91. 

Eighth New York militia, at Relay House, 106. 
Elliot, Lieutenant H. H., distinguished at 

Baton Rouge, 571. 
Elwell, Lieutenant-Colonel Andrew, with 

Eighth Regiment, 74. 
English Bend, McClellan upon, 193 ; batteries 

at, reduced, 268. 
Estafette (\u Sud, resumes publication, 434 
European Brigade, protects New Orleans, 264, 

266, 268, 292 ; disbanded, 329. 
Everett, Captain., in Biloxi expedition, 215; 

lands in rear of St. Philip, 249 ; lands in New 

Orleans, 280, 283 ; distinguished at Baton 

Rouge, 570 ; commended, 585. 
Everett,Edward. New Orleans votes for, in 1860, 

253. 

Exchange of prisoners, begun by Butler, 153, 
154. 

Exeter, New Hampshire, General Butler at 
school there, 16. 



Fago, C. McDonald, case of, 470. 
Farewell address to the people of New Orleans, 
602. 

Farragut, Admiral, David G. , allusion to, 67 ; 
in consultation with Butler, at Ship Island. 
210; announces his readiness, 219; his cha- 
racter, 225 ; reconnoiters forts, 227 ; tele- 
graphs news to the fleet, 232; his order for the 
running bv, 234; runs bv the forts, 237- 
245 ; letters to Butler and Porter, 249 ; an- 
chors before New Orleans. 250. 266 ; the pas- 
sage up the Mississippi, 267, 269; sends 
Bailey on shore, 269; in correspondence with 
mayor of New Orleans, 272-274 ; visits Car- 
rollton, 273 ; orders divine service, 275 ; 
threatens to bombard New Orleans. 276 ; sur- 
renders the situation to Butler, 279 ; goes to 
Baton Rouge, 298 ; bombards Donaldsonville. 
320; at Vicksburgh, 554; salutes Butler on 
his departure, 611,612. 

Farrington, Captain, in Ponchatoula expedition, 
576. 

Fassett, Lieutenant, distinguished at Baton 
Rouge, 573. 

Fauconnett, M.. intercedes for French news 
paper, 434. 

Fay, Major, at conference with Carey, 127. 
Federal Hill, seized by Butler, 112. 
Felton, Mr., assists General Butler at Philadel- 
phia, 71. 

Field, Lieutenant D. C. G., appointed to re- 
ceive poor tax, 310, 322 ; to receive dividends, 
476. 

Fillmore. Millard, New Orleans votes for, in 
1856, 253. 

Fiske, Major "W O., commended, 585. 



54 INDEX. 



Flanders, B. F., runs for Congress, 527 ; elected, 
595. 

Florence, Eowena, claims Twiggs's swords, 468, 
615. 

Floyd, John B., in Buchanan's cabinet, 64. 

Forstall, Edmund J., votes for reception of 
French fleet at New Orleans, 330 ; in affair of 
the silver, 372, 373, 472. 

Forsyth, John, allusion to, 58. 

Fort Jackson, McClellan upon, 193; its re- 
ported armament. 209 ; described, 219 ; recon- 
noitered, 227 ; bombarded, 227, 229 ; barracks 
of, burnt, 232 ; run by, 241 ; condition when 
taken. 251 ; visited by Butler, 277. 

Fortress Monroe, condition in April, I860, 69 ; 
Butler commands at, 120; described, 122; al- 
lusion to, 491. 

Fort St. Philip, McClellan upon, 193; its arma- 
ment, as reported, 209 ; plan to reduce, 211 ; 
described, 219 ; bombarded. 227, 229 ; run by, 
241; condition when taken, 250, 251; visited 
by Butler, 277. 

Fourteenth Maine, distinguished at Baton Eouge, 
570. 

Fourth Wisconsin, 193 ; lands in New Orleans, 
280. 

Fox, assistant secretary of navy, supports New 
Orleans expedition, 191. 

Fox, the, captured by McMillan, 3S6, 390. 

Franklin, Benjamin, of Saxon lineage, 13; the 
consummate Yankee, 15; allusion to, 70; 
recommended building ships in compart- 
ments, 205; the public threatened with a 
biography of, 607. 

Fremont, General John C, his rank, 120. 

French, Captain, distinguished at Baton Eouge, 
573. 

French, Colonel Jonas H., on staff of Butler, 
212; in Biloxi expedition, 215; demands 
St. Charles Hotel. 284; interview with the 
mayor of New Orleans, 285; appointed pro- 
vost-marshal of New Orleans, 297 ; advertises 
for policemen, 337 : his report on the oath, 
462 ; demands gas-works 1 negroes of Phelps, 
513 ; in his office, 590. 

French fleet at New Orleans, letter of Butler to 
mayor and council respecting, 329. 

Freret, George A., his notice to depositors, 416. 

Frying-pan Shoals, the Mississippi upon, 205. 

Fuller, Captain, on Lafourche commission, 682. 

Fulton, Dr., sent to Fort Lafayette, 484. 



Galveston, attack upon contemplated, 194. 
Gardner. Lieutenant W. H., distinguished at 

battle of Baton Eouge, 572. 
Gardner, Sergeant, distinguished at Baton 

Eouge, 573. 
Garrison, VV. L., allusion to, 9S. 
Gaulding, Mr., supports Douglas, 58. 
Gautherm & Co., their affair" with the French 

consul, 378-382. 
George, Captain Paul E., equips New Orleans 

expedition. 187; rejected ty senate, 188, 211; 

abundance provided by. 224. 
Gerdes, F. H., surveys the Mississippi below 

forts, 226. 

Glenn, Samuel F., at market of New Orleans, 
284; goes to St. Charles Hotel, 284; to City 
Hall, 285; his services in provost court. 434 

Glisson, Commander O. S., assists the Missis- 
sippi, 206. 



Gooding, Colonel O. P., lands in New Orleans, 

2S0. 

Goodrich, Dr., his church closed by Strong. 
483 ; refuses to pray for president of United 
States. 4S4 ; sent North, 484 ; interview witL 

Strong, 485. 

Goodwin, John, Jr., with Eighth Eegiment, 74. 
Gottschalk, Mr., allusion to, 92. 
Gourgand, M., quoted, 30. 

Grant, General U. S.," allusion to, 322; think* 

slavery doomed, 528. 
Great Bethel, battle of, 139. 
Greble, Lieutenant, at battle of Great Bethel 

143-145, 148, 149. 
Griffin, J. Q. A. A., his recollections of Butler at 

the bar, 29, 35. 
Grimsby, Captain James, distinguished at Baton 

Eouge, 572. 

Guerillas, treatment of by Butler, 559-565, 574. 
Gunn, Thomas Butler, quoted upon markets in 

New Orleans, 592. 



Haggerty, Captain Peter, goes ashore at Annap- 
olis, 78, 79; at conference with Carey, 127; 
joins Butler's staff, 189; announced, 212; com- 
mended, 585. 

Hahn, Michael, elected to Congress, 595. 

Haines, T. J., serves at Fortress Monroe, 160. 

Haley, Sergeant John, distinguished at Baton 
Eouge, 572. 

Halleck, General H. W., Butler to, on poor in 
New Orleans, 321; on his recall, 593; orders 
Butler's recall, 599 ; Davis upon, 608. 

Hamilton, General Schuyler, joins Butler at An- 
napolis, 87; his letters to Butler at Eelay 
House, 109. 

Hamilton, Mr., speaks in New Orleans, 595. 

Hampton, Va., Phelps at, 126; described by 
Eussell, 165; evacuated, 168. 

Hare, Eobert, guides troops to Federal Hill, 111. 

Harper's Magazine, quoted upon vellow fever at 
New Orleans, 395, 397. 

Harriet Lane, the, in the running by the forts, 
23S; receives surrender of forts, 250. 

Harris, Mr., interview with Butler, 335. 

Harroll, Mr., his testimonv on Confederate loan, 
380. 

Hartford, the, not chain plated, 226; Butler on 
board, 233 ; runs by the forts, 238, 241, 244, 
245; salutes Butler on his departure, 612. 

Hatteras Inlet, expedition against, 177 ; Butler 
off, 204. 

Haven, Eev. Gilbert, with Eighth Eegiment, 74. 
Havre de Grace, General Butler at, 74, 75. 
Hawkins, John, his drinking house, 462. 
Hayes, Major, distinguished at Baton Eouge, 
571. 

Hayne, Paul H., his poem on the woman order, 
340. 

Heenan, John, allusion to, 356. 

Heidsieck, Charles, comes to New Orleans dis- 
guised as bar-keeper, 304; his case stated, 
360-363. 

Herald, New York, quoted upon Farragut's re- 

connoitering the forts, 227 ; its reporter in the 

fleet, 236, 240, 245, 26S. 
Hicks, Governor, orders Butler not to land, 78; 

Butler's reply, 80 ; interview with Butler, 82; 

protests against the landing, 82, 85; another 

protest, 90; allusions to, 96. 



INDEX, 



655 



Higgins, Colonel, commands Fort St. Philip, 1 

221 ; his confidence, 223. 
Hill, Captain, goes to Havana, 594. 
Hill, Isaac, his career and boyhood, 14. 
Hinks. Colonel Edward W., with Eighth Regi- 

ment, 74; in advance at Annapolis, 88, 91. 
Hollins, Commodore, allusion to, 209. 
Holmes, Lieutenant N., assists Mumford to tear 

down flag. 275. 
Holt, Dr.A. T., distinguished at Baton Eonge,572. 
Holt, M., his drinking house, 462. 
Homans, Charles, repairs locomotive, S5; runs 

it, 91, 93. 

Hooker, General Joseph, allusion to, 69. 

Hope & Co., their silver seized, 367; Forstall 

to, on the seizure of the silver, 373. 
Houma, visited by Keith. 563. 
Howe, Lieutenant N. G., distinguished at Baton 

Eouge, 571. 

Howeil, Lieutenant, distinguished at Baton 
Rouge, 572. 573. 

Hoyt, ^Assistant Engineer, protects the Rich- 
mond, 225. 

Huckins, Mr., votes for reception of French 
fleet at New Orleans, 330. 

Hudson, Captain James, Jr., with Eighth Regi- 
ment, 74. 

Huger, J. M., 428, 430. 

Hugo, Victor, quoted, 29. 

Humphrey, Dr. Wesley, upon cruelty to slaves, 
494. 

Hunt, Rendal, delivers letter to Forstall, 375. 
Hunter, General David, his proclamation of 
freedom annulled, 492. 



Ida, the, case of, 402. 

Ilsley, Edwin, aid to Shepley, 337. 

Ingalls, E. A., with Eighth Regiment, 74. 

Insurrection, letters upon, of Butler and An- 
drew, 94, 95; remarks upon, 98; Butler to 
Weitzel upon. 518. 

Iroquois, the, grapples fire-raft, 228; runs by 
the forts. 23S, 241, 

Isabella of Spain, allusion to, 259. 

Itasca, the, cuts the cable, 235, 236; attempts 
to run by forts, 239. 



Jackman, Sergeant, distinguished at Baton 
Rouge, 573. 

Jackson, Andrew, of Scotch-Irish blood, 13 ; al- 
lusions to. 262, 292. 296. 

. ackson, the gunboat, in Biloxi expedition, 
215, 217 ; in the running by the forts, 238. 

Jefferson, Thomas, John Adams to, 23. 

Jeff, story of, 536. 

Johnson, Captain, anecdote of, 426. 

Johnson, HerschelL candidate for vice-presi- 
dency, 55. 

Johnson, Laura W., to Mrs. Butler, 152. 

Johnson, Reverdy, in Charleston Convention. 
50, 356 ; a Southern man, 356 ; appointed com- 
missioner to New Orleans, 371; he decides 
upon the silver, 373; upon the Dupasseur 
coin, 376; restores coin to French consul, 3S0; 
restores the sugar. 385; restores Kennedy and 
Co/s fine, 3S7; effects of his decisions, 389, 
391, 470, 472. 

Jones, Colonel Edward F.. assembles the Sixth 
Regiment, 67 ; lands troops in rear of St. Phi- 
lip, 249; appointed to command forts, 277. 



Jones, John M., at battle of Great Bethel, 145 
150. 

Juge, General, commands European Brigade, 
268; calls upon Butler, 298. 



Kane, Marshal, in sympathy with secession, 103. 

Kane, Patrick, ordered for execution, 347: 
reprieved, 35i. 

Kapff, Captain, at Great Bethel, 146. 

Katahdin, the, ru/is by the forts, 238, 241. 

Keith, Colonel, John C, granted leave of ab- 
sence, 557; excursion into Lafourche, 563: 
distinguished at Baton Rouge, 571; com- 
mended, 585. 

Keller, Fidel, committed to Ship Island, 441. 

Kelty, Captain Eugene, distinguished at Batou 
Rouue, 571, 572. 

Kemble, Frances Ann, quoted upon slavery. 
549. 

Kennebec, Colonel, commended, 585. 
Kennebec, the, reconnoiters forts, 227; in 

expedition to cut the cable, 235 ; attempts to 

run by the forts, 239, 241. 
Kennedy, Judsje, committed to Fort Jackson, 

335. 

Kennedy, P. H. and Co., case of, 385. 

Kensel, captain George A., on staff of Butler, 
212 ; landing in New Orleans, 280, 2S1 ; com- 
mended, 585. 

Kimball, Colonel, attacks Manchac Pass, 565. 

Kineo, the, runs by the forts. 238, 241. 

Kinsman, Colonel, J. B., joins Butler's Staff, 139 ; 
announced, 212 ; in Biloxi expedition, 215. 
216; views the running by the forts, 246; 
conducts Summers to the St. Charles, 286: 
to Custom-House, 288 ; takes possession ot 
Slideirs house, 345; seizes the silver, 366: 
asks a question of Seward, 369 ; presides in 
provost court. 434 ; restores Miss Montama! 
to her parents. 532 ; captures a steamboat, 
552; visits Lafourche, 561; on Lafourche's 
commission, 5S2-584 ; commended, 585. 

Knight. Corporal Isaac, distinguished at Baton 
Rouge, 572. 

Know^Nothing Party, its evil influence in New 

Orleans. 299. 
Kossuth, Mr., receives fee from Gautherin, 38Q. 
Kroehl, Mr., attempts to blow up the cable, 235. 
Kruttsmidt, Mr., for secession, 254, 316 ; sub 

scribes for the defense of New Orleans, 317 

319. 



Labarre de, Mr., votes for reception of French 

fleet at New Orleans, 330. 
La Blanche, Babilliard, his negroes at Camp 

Parapet, 498, 502, 504. 
Lafourche, visited by Kinsman, 561; by Keith, 

563 ; conquest of, 580 : sequestered, 531. 
Lall, Colonel, commended, 585. 
Lanata, Joseph, to Butler, on the oath, 456. 
Landry, Mr., his cruelty to his daughter, 547. 
Lane, Joseph, candidate for vice-presidency. 55 
Larue, John H., committed as a vagrant, 438. 
Larue, Mrs., excites a riot in New Orleans. 437. 
Latham, Adjutant, distinguished at Baton 

Rouge, 571 ,572. 
Leacock, Rev. Dr., does not appear at funeral 

of De Kay, 439 ; his letter to Butler, on hit 

sermon, 479 ; on the oath. 481. 
Lee. General Robert E., 607. 



656 



INDEX. 



Lee, Miss, Interview with officers at Pass 
Christian, 218. 

Lee. Mrs., interview with officers at Pass 
Christian, 218. 

Lefferts, Colonel M., declines to accompany But- 
ler, TO, 71; reaches Annapolis, 83 ; refuses to 
join Butler, S3 ; consents, ST ; remarks upon, SS. 

Lemore, Alfred, supplies cloth to Confederates, 
379 ; arrested, 3S0. 

LenKTe, Jules, supplies cloth to Confederates, 
3T9 ; arrested, 3S0. 

Loinore, S. A. <& Co., supply cloth to Confeder- 
ates, 3T9. 

Leonard, Charles, his death at Relay House, 10". 

Lepayre, J. M , Butler to, on bank coin, 415. 

Lewis. Major William B., his activity and en- 
durance at eighty, 225. 

Lewis, the transport, in Biloxi expedition, 215, 
207. 

Lieb, Theodoras, committed to Ship Island, 44S. 

Lincoln, Abraham, scheme to assassinate, 65; 
saluted by Seventh Regiment, 93; not famil- 
iar with Washington, 102; promotes Butler, 
117; his remarks upon special recruiting, 181; 
consents to New Orleans expedition, 192; 
Butler to, on leaving for New Orleans, 194; 
ais vote in New Orleans in 1860, 253 ; cheered 
by negro, 267 ; groans for, at New Orleans, 
268; his instructions to Butler respecting ne- 
groes, 491 ; annuls Hunter's proclamation of 
freedom, 492; Phelps to, on arming the ne- 
groes, 498 ; Butler to, on free labor in Louisi- 
ana. 525; Butler to, on his recall, 597 ; receives 
Butler, 613, 614; his jokes. 629. 

Lively, Mr., taken prisoner, 154. 

Long, Sergeant, distinguished at Baton Eouge. 
573. 

Lopez, General, allusion to, 256. 
Lord, Mr., anecdote of, 31. 

Louisiana, the, terror of. 247, 24S ; blown up, 250. 

Lovel, General Mansfield, allusion to, 209; noti- 
fied of Biloxi expedition, 217; to Duncan, 237; 
brings news of coming fieet to New Orleans, 
264 ; interview with Bailey, 271 ; leaves New 
Orleans, 272 ; his proclamation of martial law, 
296; prepares New Orleans for defense, 316; 
his troops fed from New Orieans, 329 ; con- 
spiracy of paroled prisoners to join, 334 ; in- 
cites guerillas, 560. 

Lowell Advertiser, anecdote respecting, 27. 

Lowell, its origin and importance, 16; the But- 
lers removed to, 16. 

Ludlow, Colonel W. H., 608. 

Lynch, Lieutenant T. L., reduced to the ranks, 
558. 



McOlellan, General George B., his rank, 120; com- 
mends Butler's Texas'paper, 185; why he did 
not attack in fall of 1861, 189 ; his opinion of 
New Orleans expedition, 191 ; his orders to 
Butler, 192, 491, 551. 

McCormick, Dr., anecdotes related by, 258-263 ; 
in yellow fever at New Orleans, 398; in his 
office, 590; commended, 585. 

Maedonald, private, in Biloxi expedition, 214. 

McKean, Commodore, at Ship Island, 196, 197. 

Macklin, S.,428, 430. 

McLane, Abraham, ordered for execution, 347 ; 

reprieved, 351. 
McKinzie, private, distinguished at Baton 

Rouge, 572. 



McMillan, General, captures the Fox, 386, 568 ; 

commended, 585. 
McNutt, Captain, at battle of Great Bethel, 146. 
Magee's cavalry, distinguished at Baton Rouge, 

571. 

Maginnis, John, upon Citizens 1 Bank silver, 

364. 

Magruder, Colonel J. B., correspondence with 

Butler. 153, 154. 
Mallorv, Colonel, his slaves come to Fortress 

Monroe, 126, 128. 
Manassas Junction, Butler's plan to seize, 165 ; 

battle of, 167, 190. 
Manassas, the ram, described, 223 ; attacks the 

Union fieet. 242, 244, 247, 249. 
Manchac Pass, McClellan upon, 194; attacked 

by Kimball, 565. 
Mannel's Canal, troops enter by, 249. 
Manning, Captain C. H., distinguished at Baton 

Rogue, 573. 
Manning, J. C, 428, 430. 

Manning's Battery, distinguished at Baton 

Rouge, 570. 
Mariam, Mr., taken prisoner. 154. 
Marie. Felicia, the case of, 405. 
Martin. Captain K. V., with Eighth Regiment, 74. 
Martin, Lieutenant Frederick, in the Pass Of- 
fice, 4S6; relates anecdotes of, 4S8; in Pon- 

chatoula expedition, 576, 577. 
Martineau, Harriet, quoted upon duelling in 

New Orleans. 259. 
Mason and Slidell, in Fort "Warren, 1S6; given 

up, 1S9; allusion to, 314; Butler's mature 

opinion respecting. 624. 
Mason, John M., in Fort Warren, 1S6 ; given up, 

189. 

Massachusetts preparing for war, 59. 

Matthews. Lieutenant, interview with Butler at 
Annapolis, 76, 78. 

Mejan, Count de, applied to by Heidsieck, 360; 
his complicity with Heidsieck, 362; Conturi6 
writes to, 365; his detection and removal, 
377-3S2; Butler to, on the sugar, 385; to But- 
ler on oath, 456; to Weitzel, on disarming, 
463, 464. 

Mejan. Madame de, bribed, 3S0. 

Memminger, C. G., retains coin of New Orleans 
banks, 416. 

Mercer, Dr., pleads for Mumford, 351 ; corre- 
spondence with Butler on the oath, 475. 

Mercer, W. N., Butler to, on bank coin, 415 ; 
to Butler, for Bank of Louisiana, 421 ; Butler 
to, on same, 422; replv, 423. 

Merrimac, the, allusions" to, 209, 223, 232. 

Metcalf, Adjutant J. H., distinguished at Baton 
Eouge, 573. 

Miami, the, in the running by the forts, 238; 

borrowed by Butler. 24S. 
Miller, Captain Morris J., advises Butler not to 

land at Annapolis, 79 ; Butler's reply, 80. 
Miner, W. J., 541. 

Mint of New Orleans, Farragut orders United 
States flag upon, 270, 272; "flag torn from, by 
Mumford^ 275 ; flag again hoisted, 278. 

Mississippi River, number of its outlets, 314. 

Mississippi, the ram, explosion of at New 
Orleans, 269. 

Mississippi, the sloop-of-war, fires into the fire- 
raft, 228; allusion to, 229 ; runs bv the forts, 
238, 341, 249 ; Summers flies to, 2*77 ; leaves, 
282. * 

Mississippi, the transport, voyage to Ship 



INDEX. 



657 



Island, 203; at New Orleans, 279: Mrs. But- 
ler leaves, 289; ballasted with sugar, 40S. 

Mobile, attack upon contemplated, 185, 194; 
supplies New Orleans with provisions, 302; 
attack upon postponed, 551. 

Mobs, cowardice of, 2S7. 

Monitor, the, news of her sinking the Merrimac, 
232 ; Porter sends for, 248. 

Montreuil, A., in case of Durand, 423. 

Monroe, Colonel Timothy, in command of 
Eighth Regiment, 74. 

Monroe, Horace E., with Eighth Regiment, 74. 

Monroe, John T., his proclamations at New 
Orleans, 268, 269; interview with Bailey, 
270; in conflict with Farragut, 272-274; 
interview with Butler, 2S5 ; addresses mob, 
286; second interview, 290; Butler to, on 
cleaning the streets, 304; his reply, 304; 
Butler to, on French fleet, 329 : remonstrates 
against woman order, 331 ; interviews with 
Butler, 331-335; committed to Fort Jack- 
son, 335 : anecdote of, 335 ; allusion to, 347. 

Montamal, John, case of, 532. 

Montgomery, Mr., complains of John Andrew, 
539. 

Moore, Thomas Overton^ his lineage, 220; 
abandons New Orleans, 265; urges "burning 
of cotton, 266; passes given by, 314: keeps 
cotton from New Orleans, 315 ; quoted on the 
woman order, 339 ; denounces execution of 
Mumford, 352. 

Morris, Captain, sends party to hoist United 
States flag on Mint of New Orleans, 274. 

Morton, acting-master, commands boat at New 
Orleans, 269. 

Mount, "William 8., his notice to depositors, 418. 

Mount Vernon, the, assists the Mississippi, 206, 
207. 

Mumford, W. B., tears down United States flag 
from Mint of New Orleans, 275 ; his act ex- 
plained to Farragut, 277 ; executed, 346, 351 ; 
allusion to, 500 ; Davis upon, 607. 



Nast, Thomas. See frontispiece. 

Negroes, no danger of their rising, 98, 99 ; at 
Fortress Monroe, 126-133, 168-173; serve 
on Hatteras expedition, 178; regiment of, 
refuse to leave New Orleans, 264; welcome 
the fleet, 267 ; one gives information of hidden 
silver, 364 ; in provost court of New Orleans, 
432 ; fears of their rising, 464, 465 ; number of, 
in Louisiana, 489 ; the free-colored in New Or- 
leans, 489, 490; the president's instructions 
respecting, 491 ; Butler's policy respecting. 
492-495; cruel treatment of, 494; Phelps 
and Butler upon, 497-515 ; Butler to "Weit- 
zel, on free-colored regiments, 518 ; employed 
on abandoned plantations, 522 ; contract re- 
specting, 523 ; results of free labor, 525 ; anec- 
dote of one, 553 ; Butler up. i arming, 623 ; in 
Lafourche, 580. 

Newhall, Captain G. T, with Eighth Eegiment, 
74. 

New Hampshire P&triot, influence of, 14. 
New London, the gunboat, in Biloxi expedition, 
215, 217 

New Orleans, Stanton suggests capture of, 191; 
M'Ciellan's orders respecting, 192; plan to 
reduce, 210; its defenses, 209, 219; how it 
embraced secession, 253 ; consequences of se- 
cession, 255 ; its politics, 256 ; panic in, 263- 



266, 26S ; will not surrender, 270-276 ; land 
ing of troops in, 280 ; Butler's measures to 
feed, 300 ; how prepared for defense, 316 ; 
women of, insuit Union soldiers, 325 ; rebels 
design to retake, 486, 565. 

Newport News, seized by Butler, 124, 126 ; forti- 
fied, 133, 134; Butler advised to abandon, 168. 

Newton, Frank, executed, 447, 449. 

New York City, politics of, 256; Butler re- 
ceived in, 617. 

New York World, quoted upon Butler, 616. 

Nickerson, Colonel, distinguished at Baton 
Rouge, 570. 

Nim's battery, distinguished at Baton Rouge 
370. 

Ninth Connecticut, in Biloxi expedition, 215; 

distinguished at Baton Rouge, 570. 
Noblett, Captain, distinguished at Baton Rouge, 

572. 

Norcross, Lieutenant F. M., distinguished at 
Baton Rouge, 571. 



Oath of allegiance in New Orleans, 450, 462, 
474, 481. 

O'Dowd, private, in Biloxi expedition, 215. 

Old Point Comfort, described, 122. 

Oneida, the, struck from Fort Jackson, 232; 
runs by the forts, 238, 241. 

Orders issued in New Orleans, to bring provi- 
sions from Mobile, 302; to run Opelousas 
railroad, 302; to bring provisions from Red 
River, 305; to distribute food among poor, 
306 ; to sell rations to poor, 306 ; to tax the 
rich for support of the poor, 309; same re- 
peated, 322 ; to annul Davis's fasting procla- 
mation, 323 ; to arrest insulti'ig women, 327 ; 
to commit mayor of NeAv Orleans, 331 ; to for- 
bid prayers for Davis, 337 ; to execute Mum- 
ford, 346; to execute six paroled prisoners, 
347 ; to admit cotton and sugar to New Or- 
leans, 408; to stop circulation of Confederate 
notes, 417; forbidding banks to pay them, 
419 ; to disclose Confederate property, 427 ; 
to annul rebel confiscations, 431 ; to commit 
Mrs. Philips, 441 ; to commit Keller, 441 ; to 
commit Andrews, 442 ; to hang robbers, 447 ; 
to require oath of allegiance, 450; to dissolve 
city government, 452; to disarm New Orleans, 
486; to register foreigners, 461, 469; to forbid 
transfers of property, 469 ; to describe prop- 
erty, 473 ; to confiscate dividends, 476 ; to ex- 
clude negroes from Camp Pirapet, 497; to 
work abandoned plantations, 522; to clear 
jails of negroes, 529 ; to keep women from 
quarters, 557 ; to prevent pillage, 557 ; to pre- 
vent drinking, 558; to discharge sutler, 558; 
to promote Wright, 558; commending good 
behavior of the troops, 559 ; to commemorate 
"Williams, 567 ; to commend troops at Baton 
Rouge, 567, 568; to sequester Lafourche, 581 ; 
farewell, 600. 

Orr, James, anecdote of, 64. 

Quid, Robert, 608. 

Overton, Thorns, his defense of Fort St. Philip, 
220. 

Owasca, the, opens on the forts, 230; in the run- 
ning by the forts, 238. 



Paesher & Co. subscribe for defense of New Or- 
leans, 319 



( 



658 



INDEX. 



Page, Cap-tain, to repair levee, 496. 

Paige, Captain, guards Summers to Custom- 
House. 289. 

Paine Colonel, lands in New Orleans, 280. 

Palfrey, Lieutenant J. C. on staff of Butler, 212. 

Palmerston, Lord, quoted upon the woman or- 
der, 341 ; his jokes, 629. 

Pardoning, cruelty of, 348. 

Parton, James, re'ference to, 220: threatens the 
public with a biography of Dr. Franklin, 607. 

Pass Christian, expedition to, 217. 

Pass Office at New Orleans described, 485 ; an- 
ecdotes of, 48S. 

Payne Colonel, commended, 5S5. 

Payne, Huntington & Co., guarantee Confeder- 
ate loan, 3S0. 

Payne, Mr., in Charleston Convention, 48. 

Peck, Major F.H , upon negroes at Camp Parapet, 
497, 513 ; hunts guerillas. 574. 

Pendegrast.Ooinmodore, in Hampton Eoads, 141. 

Pensacola, attack upon, contemplated, 194 ; an- 
other, 219 ; cable stolen from. 222. 

Pensacola, the, protected by chain armor, 225; 
runs by the forts, 238, 241 ; party from, hoist 
flag on" Mint, 274; tires upon Muinford. 275. 

Perkins, Captain, distinguished in Lafourche, 
580 ; commended, 5S5. 

Perkins, Lieut., lands at New Orleans with Bai- 
ley, 269. 

Pettigrew, Mr., interview with Butler, 335. 

Phelps, General J. W., at Fortress Monroe. 124 ; 
his character, 125; visits Hampton. 126; his 
abhorrence of pillage. 162; interview with 
Eussell, 164; goes to" Ship Island. 185: at Ship 
Island, 196, 197; his proclamation, 19S; his 
remarks upon, 201 ; anecdotes of, 202 ; com- 
mands a brigade, 211: commands troops at 
mouth of Mississippi. 248; at the forts. 277; 
lands alyne in New Orleans. 281 ; visited Oar- 
rollton, 283 ; in command there. 298; in col- 
lision with Butler on the negro question, 496- 
514; appeals to the president. 49S; his re- 
signation accepted, 514; goes home, 515. 

Philips, Captain B.. with Eighth Eegiment, 74. 

Philips. Mrs. P., committed to Ship Island, 43S, 
441, 587. 

Philips, Philip, apologizes for misconduct of his 
child, 441. 

Phillips, Wendell, allusion to, 9S ; quoted upon 

contrabands, 127. 
.Piaquet, Adjutant, to Butler, on the oath, 456. 

Picayune, Nfew Orleans, quoted upon tranquil- 
lity of New Orleans, 272 ; upon Mumford, 275. 

Pierce, Engineer, conversation with Kinsman, 
561. 

Pierce, General E. "W., desires to march with 
first troops, 69 ; at battle of Great Bethel, 142- 
1^6; his subsequent services, 152. 

Pillage, suppressed by Butler, 161, 162 ; com- 
mends troops for abstaining from, 218; for- 
bidden in New Orleans. 2S0 ; in Louisiana, 557. 

Finola, the. attempts to blowup the cable, 235; 
runs by the forts, 239, 241. 

Point la Hache, fleet off. 267. 

Polk, the Eight Eeverend General, forbids clergy 
to pray for president of United States, 483. 

Pollard, Ed. A., his account of Great Bethel, 140. 

Ponchatoula, attacked by Strong, 576. 

Poore, Major Ben Perley, with Eighth Eegi- 
ment, 74. 

Porter, Admiral W. D.. preparing bomb tcs- 
sels, 185 ; his part in the attack" on the forts, 
210 ; allusion to, 222 ; prepares for the fire- 



rafts, 228 ; bombards forts, 227. 229, 232. 234, 
235, 240; quoted upon the Manassas, 247; 
withdraws bomb fleet, 24S. Farragut to, 
249; receives surrender of the forts. 250; 
visits them with Butler. 277, reports ram 
Arkansas, 565; destroys her, 56S : allusion to, 
591. 

Porter, Captain Francis E., with Eighth Eegi- 
ment. 74. 

Port Hudson, conduct of the colored troops at, 
521 : becomes formidable, 551, 5S5. 

Port Royal, Butler at, 207. 

Portsmouth, the, attempts to run by the forts, 
238, 241. 

Preble, private, distinguished at Baton Bouse, 

573. 

Proclamations — Butler's, at Baltimore, 113; 

Phclps"s, at Ship Island, 198; Butlers, at New 

Orleans, printed. 2S2; copy of same, 292: 

Davis's against Butler, 607. 
Professors in New England colleges, remarks 

upon, IS. 

Public schools in New Orleans, pupils taught 
secession, 325 : reformed bv Butler, 435. 

Puffer. Captain Alfred F.. signs order, 434; to 
Leacock. 4S0; conducts three clergymen to 
New York. 4S4 ; in the Pass Office, 486 ; quoted 
upon, 487. 

Pngh, David, in conflict with negroes, 540. 
Punch, quoted upon the woman order, 342. 



Quarantine at New Orleans, 394r-406. 



Ralph, Lieutenant A. J., distinguished at Baton 

Eouge. 572. 

Eeed, General Lee, his duel with Alston, 260; 

assassinated. 261 ; in another duel, 262. 
Eeed. James, helps Mumford tear down flag, 

275. 

Relay House, Butler at 106. 

Eeichard. General, joins rebel army, 254, 316; 

allusion to. 317, 319. 
Reichard, Major, 428. 430. 

Renshaw, Captain, assists Butler at Port RoyaL 
207; attacks fire-raft. 229. 

Reads, Samuel, with Eighth Regiment, 74»? 

Richardson, Captain H." H.,' with Eighth Regi- 
ment. 74. 

Richmond Examiner, quoted upon Butler, 615. 
Richmond, the. how protected, 225 ; runs bv the 

forts, 238, 242. 
Rinaldo, the. at New Orleans, 392. 394. 
Ritchie, David, rescues flag of the McClellan,67. 
Roanoke, the, case of, 404 

Roberts, Colonel, distinguished at Baton Rouge, 
569. 

Rochereau & Co.. protest against poor tax in 

New Orleans. 319. 
Rodin, Mr., votes for reception of French fleet 

at New Orleans, 330. 
Rogers. Corporal, distinguished at Baton Rouge, 

5"72. 

Rosecrans. General W. S.. allusion to. 322; 

thinks slavery doomed. 52S. 
Rosier, J. A., pleads for paroled prisoners. 349. 
Routine in New Orleans. 586. 
Eowley, private E. O., distinguished at Baton 

Eouge, 573. 
Roy, Stanislaus, executed. 447. 449. 
Buggies. General, allusion to, 209. 
Euiz^ Senor, not for secession, 254. 



INDEX. 



659 



Russell, William Howard, upon the Yankee, 15; 

visits Fortress Monroe, 163. 
Russy, Colonel, advises Butler, 124. 
Russey, Lieutenant, distinguished at Baton 

Rouge, 573. 



Sable Island, rendezvous against St. Philip, 248 ; 
troops leave, 277. 

St Charles's Hotel, seized for Butler, 284, 285; 
scenes in, 285-298. 

Samson, Captain, joins Sixth Massachusetts, 67. 

Sandford, H. S., sends intelligence from Brus- 
sels, 377, 379, 380. 

Sawyer, Captain S. W., distinguished at Baton 
Rouge, 574. 

Saxon, the, reaches the fleet below the forts, 
232; Butler on board, 239, 246; before New 
Orleans, 283, 

Sayers, Thomas, allusion to, 356. 

Schouler, General William, quoted upon Captain 
Dille and Captain Samson, 67; his list of 
Eighth Regiment, 74 

Sciota, the, rims by the forts, 239, 241. 

Scott, George, srives information of the Bethels, 
140 ; in the battle, 142. 

Scott, Lieutenant General Winfield, allusion to, 
79 ; orders Butler to remain at Annapolis, 93 ; 
remarks upon, 100 ; his plan to take Baltimore, 
105 ; Butler to, from Relay House, 107, 109 ; 
replies, 109 ; rebukes Butler, 116; recalls him, 
117 ; his orders to Butler on his going to Fort- 
ress Monroe, 120 ; Butler to, 126; correspond- 
ence with Butler upon Fortress Monroe, 129, 
130, 133, 136; orders troops from Fortress 
Monroe, 167, 168; appoints Butler to com- 
mand department of New England, 182. 

Seavy, Sergeant J. N., distinguished at Baton 
Rouge, 573. 

Secession, remarks upon, 59 ; how New Orleans 
came into, 253 ; the nature of, 254 ; incurable, 
322, 

Seeley, Lieutenant C. D., distinguished at Baton 
Rouge, 572. 

Seventh Vermont, at battle of Baton Rouge, 
570, 574. 

Seward, William H, allusion to, 50; releases 
Winans, 117 ; favors expedition to Texas, 185 ; 
his error respecting woman order in New Or- 
leans, 326; his character, 355; requests re- 
lease of Burrows, 359; his correspondence 
with Van Limburg on the silver, 36S-371; 
Butler to, on Fago case, 470. 

Shaffer, Colonel, sends free sugar to president, 
525; commendwd, 585. 

Shankey, Captain, receives cloth for Confeder- 
ates, 378. 

Shepley, General George F., commands a brig- 
ade at Ship Island, 211 ; Butler to, on cleaning 
the streets of New Orleans, 307; assumes 
government of New Orleans, 336; forbids 
praying for Davis. 337; appointed military 
governor of Louisiana, 371 ; issues currency, 
423; Mrs. Larue brought before, 437; his or- 
der on the dissolution of city government, 452 ; 
commended, 555 ; in his office, 590. 

Sherman, General, recruiting in New England, 
179, 181. 

Shields, private, distinguished at Baton Rouge, 
573. 

Ship Island, selected for a rendezvous, 185; de- 
scribed, 195 ; history of, 196 ; the troops ther* 1 
197 : sand of as ballast, 408. 



Shipley, Captain, sent to seize silver, 365. 
Sisters of Charity in New Orleans, Butler 

commends, 321. 
Sixth Massachusetts battery, lands in rear of 

St. Philip, 249; lands in New Orleans, 280; 

distinguished at Baton Rouge, 570. 
Sixth Massachusetts militia, leaves Boston, 67 ; 

conflict at Baltimore, 70; at Relay House, 

106 ; enters Baltimore, 111. 
Sixth Michigan, 193 ; distinguished at Baton 

Rouge, 570. 

Slavery ; Democrats ignorant of, 41, 99 ; its cor- 
rupting influence, 125 ; near Fortress Monroe, 
126 ; Phelps upon, at Ship Island, 198 ; its 
effects upon Southern women, 324 ; Phelps 
upon, at Camp Parapet, 497-515; doomed, 
527 ; French law respecting, 529, 530 ; English 
law respecting, 531 ; anecdotes illustrative of, 
532; remarks upon, 549; Butler upon, in fare- 
well address, 606 ; in New York speech, 618. 

Slidell, John, a leading conspirator, 60; in Fort 
Warren, 186 ; given up, 189 ; his house lent 
to Mrs. Beauregard, 345 ; confiscated, 467. 

Slocomb, Mrs., Butler's courtesy to, 344. 

Smith, Captain, distinguished at Baton Rouge, 
573. 

Smith, Dr., interferes for Jeff., 536. 

Smith, Edward C, ordered for execution, 347; 

reprieved, 351. 
Smith, M. L., 428, 430. 

Smith, Samuel & Co., their notice to depositors, 
417. 

Snow, Sergeant, distinguished at Baton Rouge, 

Soule, Captain, distinguished at Baton Rouge, 
573. 

Soule, Pierre, allusion to, 58 ; interview witti 
Bailey at New Orleans, 270 ; writes mayor's 
letters, 273 ; interview with Butler, 285 ; his 
position in New Orleans, 290 ; described, 291 ; 
his colloquy with Butler, 295, 296; committed 
to Fort Warren, 338 ; asks for continuance of 
Confederate notes, 414. 

Spitzer, Captain, distinguished at Baton Rouge, 
573. 

Stafford, Colonel S. H, his opinion of Butler, 
413 ; arrests robbers, 446 ; closes Hawkins's 
house, 462 ; stops negro whipping, 492 ; in his 
office, 590. 

Stanley, William, ordered for execution, 347: 
reprieved, 351, 

Stanton, Edwin M., appointed Secretary of War, 
189 ; suggests capture of New Orleans. 191 ; 
his last words to Butler, 194 ; Butler to, on 
poor tax in New Orleans, 314 ; Butler to, on 
the French Consul, 378: approves Butler's 
course, 593 ; asked to re-enforce Butler, 596 ; 
receives Butler, 614. 

Stead, Rev. B. F., correspondence with Butler 
161. 

Stephens, Paran, gives breakfast to Eighth Mas- 
sachusetts, 82. 

Stith, Mr., on French fleet at New Orleans, 330. 

Stoddard, Sergeant B., distinguished at Baton 
Rouge, 573." 

Stowe, Harriet B., allusion to, 98. 

Strike in Lowell, opposed by Butler, 27. 

Stringham, Commodore, in Hampton Roads, 
124. 

Strong, General George O, at West Point, 85 ; 

gives information respecting recruiting con- 
. troversy. 184; joins staff of Butler, 188 ; in- 
trusted with secret of New Orleans expedi- 



660 



INDEX. 



tion, 193, 194; attends conference on Ship 
Island, 210; announced as chief of staff, 212 ; 
commands expeditions to Biloxi, 213, 215 ; 
views the running by the forts, 246 ; landing 
in New Orleans, 279; demands St. Charles 
Hotel, 284 ; fears effect of woman order, 327 ; 
purity of his character, 412 ; shuts up church, 
488; interview with Goodrich, 485; promoted. 
521; receives complaint against negroes, 540; 
reports cruelty of Landry, 546 ; allusion to, 
549; commands expedition against Poncha- 
toula, 575; commended, 585; anecdote of, i 
590. 

Stuart, Commodore, conversation with Calhoun, 
39. 

Sturgis, Acting-Master, navigates the Missis- 
sippi to Ship Island, 208. 

Summers, ex-recorder, flies on board the Mis- 
sissippi, 277; conducted to the St. Charles, 
287 ; to the Custom-House, 288. 

Sumner, Charles, Butler calls upon, 42; allusion 
to, 98. 



Talmadge, Captain, at Fortress Monroe, 167. 

Tangipaho river, Strong ascends, 576; inci- 
dent of, 577. 

Tapley, Warren, with Eighth Eegiment, 74. 

Tappan, Lewis, Butler to, on contrabands, 173. 

Tarsara, Mr., Butler confutes, 401, 403, 405. 

Taylor, G-eneral Joseph, his father's sword 
restored to, 468. 

Taylor, General Bichard, allusion to, 254. 

Taylor, General Zachary, his sword, 468. 

Taylor, Lieutenant, distinguished at Baton 
Rouge, 571. 

Taylor, Mrs., contributes to Delta, 435. 

Ten hour ticket, 36. 

Tennessee, favorable to longevity, 225. 

Tenney, Lieutenant J. F., distinguished at 
Baton Eouge, 571. 

Teryaghi, B., to Butler, on the oath, 456. 

Texas, expedition to, contemplated, 185, 596. 

Times, New York (Daily), quoted upon Bal- 
timore, 102 ; upon Wool and Butler, 175 ; 
upon Phelps's proclamation, 198 ; upon the 
fire-rafts, 229, 231 : upon the running by, 
239 ; upon Colonel Thorpe, 308 ; upon negro 
in a bad fix, 534 ; upon Shepley, 589. 

Thayer, Sergeant, distinguished at Baton 
Eouge, 573. 

Thirteenth Connecticut, its good health in 

New Orleans, 401. 
Thirtieth Massachusetts, distinguished at Baton 

Eouge, 570 

Thirty^first Massachusetts, lands in New Or- 
leans, 280 ; firmness of a company of, 289. 

Thomas, Colonel 8., captures cattle, 575 ; com- 
mended, 585. 

Thomas, General E. D., signs Butler's recall, 
599. 

Thompson, General Jeff, to Butler, on the con- 
fiscations, 474 ; Strong attempts to capture, 
576 ; correspondence with Butler, 631-634. 

Thorne, Captain, commended, 585. 

Thornhill, Virginius, his letter to Butler, 533. 

Thornton. Captain, wounded, 576, 578, 631-634 ' 

Thorpe, Colonel T. B., City Surveyor of New Or- 
leans, 308 ; cleans streets, 308 ; completes bat- 
ture, 309. 

Thugs of New Orleans, cause of their supremacy, 
256, 257; threaten to destroy New Orleans, 
254 ; the True Delta upon, 299 ; employed by 



mayor to keep order, 329 ; resolved to assa» 
sinate Butler for Mumford, 347. 
Townsend, Colonel F., at battle of Great Bethel, 
143, 145. 

Tribune, New York, discloses opinion of An 
drew, 180 ; office attacked, 287. 

True Delta, refuses to print proclamation, 282; 
comments upon seizure of office, 282; sus- 
pended and resumes, 283 ; comments on the 
proclamation, 299 ; quoted on Citizens' Bank, 
364, 376. 

Trull, Lieutenant, distinguished at Baton Eous:e, 
570. 

Turnbull, Lieutenant C. N., on staff of Butler, 

212 ; in Biloxi expedition, 215. 
Turner, Colonel J. W., commended. 585. 
Twelfth Connecticut, lands in New Orleans, 281. 
Twenty-first Indiana, 193 ; distinguished at 

Baton Eouge, 570. 
Twenty-sixth" Massachusetts, lands in rear of 

St. Philip. 249 ; garrisons Fort Jackson, 277. 
Twiggs, General, flies from New Orleans, 264 , 

keeps cotton from New Orleans, 315; his 

house taken, 344, 467; his swords, 467, 468, 

615. 

Tyler, private, distinguished at Baton Eouge, 
571, 573. 



Union Ladies' Association of New Orleans, 431. 
Universal suffrage, evil effects of, 256. 
Usher, Eoland G., with Eighth Eegiment, 74. 



Van Buren, Martin, predicts evil results of uni- 
versal suffrage, 256. 

Van Limburg, his correspondence with Seward, 
on the silver, 368. 

Varuna, the, runs by the forts, 238, 241 ; in bat- 
tle with the enemy's fleet, 243. 

Yicksburg, Butler's attempts to take, 551- 
555. 

Yillers, Baron, allusion to, 379. 

Yirginia Antoinette, the, case of, 405. 

Yogel, Mrs., subscribes for the defense of New 

Orleans, 317, 319. 
Volunteer, the, aided by Butler, 402. 



Wachter, Sergeant, distinguished at Baton 
Eouge, 573. 

Wainwright, Captain, in the running by the 

forts, 245. 
Ward, S. M., 428, 430. 

Wardrop, Colonel, lends his sword to Winthrop, 
150. 

Warren, General G. K., at battle of Great 

Bethel, 145, 146. 
Washington, George, remarks upon, 100. 
Waterville College, attended by Butler, 18. 
Weber, Colonel Max, posted near Fortress 

Monroe, 166. 
Webster, Daniel, his complexion, 517. 
Weed, Charles A., employed to work abandoned 

plantations, 522. 
Wellington, Duke of, allusions to, 101, 161. 
Wells, Captain H. C., distinguished at Baton 

Bouse, 571. 

Westfield, the, attacks fire-raft, 229 ; in the run- 
ning by the forts, 238. 

West Point, voung Butler prefers, 17 ; remarks 
upon, 17 : " allusion to, 178 ; excellence of. 
188. 



INDEX. 



661 



Weitzel, General Godfrey, joins Butler's staff, 
188; intrusted with secret of New Orleans 
expedition, 193, 194; at conference on Ship 
Island, 210; announced, 212; quoted upon 
the two forts, 221; his advice to the naval 
officers, 239; views the running by, 246; 
lands troops in rear of St. Philip, 249 ; his re- 
port upon effect of bombardment, 251; re- 
pairs forts, 277 ; assistant military command- 
ant of New Orleans, 427 ; his card' on De Kay's 
funeral, 439; his report respecting Baton 
Rouge, 463 ; French consul to, on disarming, 
463; allusion to, 507; Butler to, on colored 
regiments, 518; his promotion, 521; in La- 
fourche, 526; surveys Vicksburg, 554; con- 
quers Lafourche, 580 ; commended, 585. 

Whaun, Mr., interview Avith Butler, 335. 

Wheldon, Lieutenant-Colonel, Butler to, on sup- 
port of families of his troops, 187. 

Whitcomb, Lieutenant G. F., sent to Conturie, 
366 ; distinguished at Baton Eouge, 572. 

Whiting, Mr., taken prisoner, 154. 

Whittemore, Major, distinguished at Baton 
Bouge, 570. 

Wiegel, Lieutenant W. H., on staff of Butler, 
212 ; pioneers troops to Custom-House of New 
Orleans, 280. 

Wilkinson, General James, allusion to, 292, 
206. 

Williams, General Thos., arrives at Ship Island, 
203, 204; commands a brigade, 211 ; ordered to 
Sable Island, 248; left in command there, 250; 
leaves Sable Island, 277; lands in New Or- 
leans, 280 ; in conflict with the mob, 286 ; com- 
mands at Baton Bouge, 298 ; views Vicksburg, 
554; falls at Baton Eouge, 566, 567, 569, 585. 

Williams, George L., ordered for, execution, 347 ; 
reprieved, 351. 

Wilson, Captain, at Great Bethel, 146. 

Wilson, Henry, Butler advises to warn Gov- 
ernor Andrew, 65 ; telegraphs for troops, 67 ; 
Butler telegraphs to, 68 ; his reply, 69 ; asks 
for re-enforcements for Butler, 596. 



Winans, Boss, his treason, 110; arrest, 116; But- 
ler designs to try, 117. 

Winthrop, John, Major Winthrop descended 
from, 149. 

Winthrop, Major Theodore, quoted upon Eighth 
Mass., 75; asks Butler for employment, 87 , 
quoted, upon the march to Washington, 92; 
quoted, upon Fortress Monroe, 122; upon th« 
contrabands, 127; at Fortress Monroe, 18&; 
suggests attack upon the two Bethels, 140, 
141; in the battle, 143; his death, 145; his 
character, 149. 

Winthrop, Mrs., Butler to, on her son's death 
150. 

Winona, the, in expedition to cut the cable. 

235 ; attempts to run by the forts, 239, 241. 
Winslow, Chaplain, at battle of Great Bethel, 

146. 

Winter, Captain, attacks Ponchatoula, 576, 
Wissahickon, the, runs by the forts, 238, 241. 
Woman order, the, 824-343. 
Wolfe, General, Captain Butler serves under, 13. 
Women, morally equal to men, 324. 
Wood, Corporal, distinguished at Baton Bouge, 
578. 

Wool, General John E., supersedes Butler, 175* 

gives appointment to Butler, 177. 
Wright and Allen, in Fago case, 470. 
Wright, Edward, his lying letter, 443. 
Wright Henry C, commissioned from the ranks, 

558. 



Yankees, character of, 14, 15 ; Southerners hate, 
140; hated by women of New Orleans, 325; 
their respect for women, 328: allusion to, 
412. 

Teadon, Eichard, offers reward for killing But- 
ler, 612. 

Tellow fever, its ravages at New Orleans in 
1853, 394, 397; Butler's measures against, 398- 
406. 



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